Cleopatra Borel retained her Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Senior Track and Field Championship women’s shot put title in Morelia, Mexico yesterday.
The Trinidad and Tobago field athlete threw the iron ball 17.56 metres for a huge cushion on second-placed Cecilia Dzul, the Mexican producing a 16.33m effort. Another Mexican, Laura Pulido (15.69m) finished third.
The gold in yesterday’s shot put event was the third for Borel in six CAC Senior Championship outings. The 34-year-old thrower won in 2008 and again in 2011. She has also earned two silver medals, in 2003 and 2005, and a bronze medal in 2009.
Quincy Wilson repeated his bronze medal feat of two years ago, the T&T thrower finishing third in yesterday’s men’s discus event with a 55.83m effort.
Jamaican Chad Wright (60.79m) and Mexican Mario Cota (58.58m) captured gold and silver, respectively.
There was bronze too for Kyron Blaise. The T&T athlete produced a 7.73m leap to secure third spot, behind Mexico’s Alberto Alvarez, the winner with a 7.85m jump, and Dominican Republic’s Eddy Florian (7.80m). T&T’s Dwaine Herbert (6.99m) finished 11th.
Richard Jones was fourth in the men’s 10,000 metres event, in 35 minutes, 08.93 seconds. His T&T teammate, Curtis Cox was fifth in 35:24.13.
T&T sprinter Semoy Hackett clocked 11.45 seconds to finish third in heat two and seventh overall in the women’s 100m preliminaries. In the final, however, the reigning champion was disqualified for a false start.
Another T&T sprinter, Reyare Thomas was third in heat one in 11.71 seconds. She was tenth overall, and did not qualify for the championship race.
In the men’s 100m qualifying round, T&T’s Jamol James (10.42) and Ayodele Taffe (10.59) were 14th and 25th, respectively. The top eight advanced to the final.
Jarrin Solomon led all qualifiers into today’s men’s 400m final. The T&T quartermiler topped heat two in 46.08 seconds. Solomon’s teammate, reigning champion Renny Quow was a non-finisher in heat one.
Shawna Fermin will bid for honours in the women’s 400m final. She was fourth in heat three in 53.47 seconds, advancing as a “fastest loser”. The other T&T entrant, Romona Modeste finished third in heat one and 14th overall in 54.52. The top eight secured lanes in the championship race.
Wayne Davis II will hunt precious metal in the men’s 110m hurdles final. The T&T hurdler won heat one in 13.50 seconds to advance as the fastest qualifier.
And T&T will be among the favourites in the men’s 4x100m final. In the preliminaries, T&T topped heat one in 39.03 seconds—the second fastest qualifying time.