THE Trinidad and Tobago men’s swimming relay team earned the nation’s second medal at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games after finishing third in the men’s 100m freestyle relay on Sunday evening in San Salvador, El Salvador.

The team – represented by Nikoli Blackman, Dylan Carter, Zarek Wilson and Graham Chatoor – led for most of the race but was bettered by Mexico and Venezuela in the penultimate stage of the race. However, TT pipped Colombia for the bronze medal in a time of 3:22.33.

TT's previous medal was also won in the pool by Dylan Carter, who claimed gold in the men’s 100m freestyle; setting a new Games Record of 48.49.

Team TTO also celebrated victory in women’s beach volleyball as the duo of Apphia Glasgow and La Teisha Joseph beat Jamaica’s team of Chauna Kelly and Petal Smith 2-1 in the women’s 11-12 classification. TT won the first set 21-17 but fell to the Jamaicans 17-21 in the second set. However, the duet from TT overcame their Caribbean rivals 15-13 to win the match dramatically.

Jamaica’s rugby sevens women would later avenge their beach volleyball colleagues by beating TT 31-21 in their Group A encounter. It was a match of two halves as Jamaica started strongly and went into halftime with a 19-7 lead. TT improved in the second half and won the half 14-12, but their belated efforts were not enough to salvage anything from the fixture.

Two hours later, TT were heavily beaten by Venezuela 24-5. The nation’s South American neighbours led the first half 17-0 and cruised through the second half scoring seven to TT’s five. TT will battle Costa Rica for 5th/6th place on Tuesday.

On the table tennis board, TT also suffered defeat. Rheann Chung represented the red, white and black with high spirit, but she was bettered by Cuba’s Daniela Fonseca by a score of 4-1 in the women’s singles 1/8 final match. Chung lost the first three games 11-6, 11-5 and 12-10. She gave herself a lifeline by winning the fourth game 11-6. However, despite a valiant effort in the fifth game, she was downed 11-7 as Fonseca left the court victorious.

TT was also represented in the boxing ring in San Salvador. Olympian Nigel Paul faced Cuba’s Fernando Arzola in the men’s +92kg semifinals. After three rounds, Paul came out second best as the judges ruled the match 5-0 in favour of Arzola.

In gymnastics, 17-year-old Annalise Newman-Achee competed in the women’s all-around final late on Monday evening. A report on her competition will be detailed in Wednesday’s paper.

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