A late equaliser from Kennya "Yaya" Cordner kept the hopes of the Women Warriors alive in Group A of the 2015 Pan American Games women's football competition. The senior women's team squared up against Colombia in their second match of the campaign where they had to come from behind again to salvage a draw at the death at the Hamilton Pan Am Soccer Stadium in Toronto, Canada.

Colombia took an early lead when Ingrid Vidal converted a low cross from the right side three minutes in, and then proceeded to dominate the rest of the match until an errant back pass in the 87th minute gave Cordner the ideal opportunity to save the campaign for the T&T women's team.

The result leaves the Women Warriors in a must-win encounter with the Mexicans on Saturday (5.35pm T&T time) in order to qualify for the semi-finals. The Mexicans, ranked 26th in the world, could prove to be their toughest test yet. But the game also presents a chance at revenge for Ross Russell's charges as they lost 4-2 after extra time to the Central Americans lost out on the third automatic World Cup berth at the 2014 CONCACAF Women's Championships.

Tomorrow, the men's Under-23 football team will face Paraguay at the same stadium in their second match in Group B. Despite going into the game without their skipper Alvin Jones, who was sent off against Uruguay on Monday, the young "Soca Warriors" hope to emulate the senior team who are currently doing well at the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The T&T U-23s lost 4-0 to Uruguay on Monday evening.

Over on the beach, the volleyball pair of Fabien Whitfield and Daneil Williams couldn't get the better of the cousins from Chile, Esteban and Marco Grimalt. T&T lost in straight sets 21-11, 22-20. It was their second consecutive defeat in the preliminary round Pool D at the Chevrolet Beach Volleyball Centre. Their female counterparts were also unable to register a win, as they lost in two straight sets against Mexico 25-23, 21-7 yesterday afternoon.

At Royal Canadian Yacht Club yesterday, the men and women's laser competition was still in progress at press time, and Andrew Lewis and Kelly Arrindell were both holding their own. Lewis was in tenth position in trace five of the Men's Laser class, while Arrindell moved up to second in her fifth race in the Women's Laser Radial class.

Today, endurance cyclist Varun Maharajh will be on the track at the Cisco Milton Pan Am Velodrome for the first event of the men's omnium. He will ride today in the scratch race at 11.56am (TT time). Later on he will contest the men's individual pursuit at 12.42pm, and the elimination at 6.56pm.

The men's team sprint team will be in action as well. Despite the withdrawal of Quincy Alexander through injury, Njisane Phillip who takes his place, will attempt to qualify for the final with Justin Roberts and Jude Codrington. The qualification race starts at 12.29pm, while the final, should they make it, will be 6pm this evening.

Today the T&T men’s hockey team have some ground to make up after their 11-0 thrashing from the Argentines on Tuesday. They face Cuba at 9am at the Pan Fields at the University of St George.

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Two goals in stoppage time led to a 4-4 draw between Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday night in their final group match at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Tied 3-3 through regulation, Mexico pulled ahead on an own goal by Trinidad and Tobago defender Cordell Cato in the first minute of extra play. With less than a minute left, Trinidad and Tobago’s Yohance Marshall headed in a corner kick to tie the match.

“We had a plan for the corner kicks, but I picked up the flight of the ball late,” said Marshall, who did not play in the first two Gold Cup games. “But I wound up in the right place. We got a good result.

“I’ve never gone through a final five minutes like that with the national team; with my club teams and school teams, yes. The emotions are high — they go up, they go down. You can be disappointed, but at the end, we were elated. We could have lost, but we could have easily won also.”

Trinidad and Tobago (2-0-1, 7 points) took Group C’s top seed into the quarterfinals, and will face Panama on Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J.

“It was a good game for spectators — not my heart,” said Trinidad and Tobago coach Stephen Hart, whose team is making its best Gold Cup run since reaching the semifinals in 2000.

“We had an objective to get to the quarterfinals. We wanted to win the first game and get the result from Cuba (a 2-0 win on July 12), and not have to play Mexico to get to the quarterfinals.”

Mexico (1-0-2, 5 points) will play Costa Rica in the second quarterfinal game Sunday.

“We didn’t do what we were doing before, especially in the second half,” Mexico coach Miguel Herrera said through an interpreter. “There were a lot of mistakes. We committed a lot of mistakes in the second half.”

Mexico, which has won six Gold Cup titles, took a 1-0 halftime lead on Paul Aguilar’s goal in the 32nd minute, and pulled ahead 2-0 on Carlos Vega’s shot off the left post in the 51st minute.

“We didn’t manage the game well . but we were doing it in the first half,” Herrera said. “After the second goal, we stopped playing. We made careless mistakes.”

Trinidad and Tobago’s Keron Cummings and Kenwyne Jones scored in a 3-minute span to tie the match in the 58th minute. Cummings’ second goal, in the 67th minute, put Trinidad and Tobago ahead 3-2.

“The players, we believe in one another,” said Cummings, who was making his first start in the Gold Cup. “We knew we can come back. Once we dug deep, we came back.”

Mexico made it 3-3 on Andres Guardado’s 25-yarder in the 88th minute.

“The last goal, it was a ball in the corner,” Herrera said. “If you just take the ball to the corner, the clock probably runs out. But it was a little bit of bad luck because the ball could have gone anywhere.”

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Khalifa St Fort is a strong contender for precious metal in today’s girls’ 100 metres dash, at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia. The American-born Trinidad and Tobago sprinter opens her medal quest in the preliminary round. The first heat is scheduled for 11.40am (T&T time). The semis will be contested from 7.10pm, and the final at 9.05pm.

St Fort is the second fastest entrant in the girls’ 100m with the 11.43 seconds personal best she clocked in Florida, USA on May 23. The fastest is American Candace Hill, who carries the favourite’s mantle after stopping the clock at a jaw-dropping 10.98 on June 20. The clocking is the world youth (Under-18) record, as well as the American junior (Under-20) record.

“People are expecting me to run that fast again,” said Hill at Tuesday’s IAAF press conference, “but I know that might have been a once-in-a-lifetime moment. The girl from Trinidad and Tobago is a great athlete. I feel like we’re going to go head-to-head in the finals.”

St Fort’s coach, T&T’s quadruple Olympic medallist Ato Boldon said at the press conference that Hill’s 10.98 run has served as a fillip for his athlete.

“Khalifa’s whole season changed when she saw that 10.98, because when someone she runs against runs a huge personal best, it shows you it’s possible. I know Khalifa is ready to run a personal best here and you can tie it to watching that 10.98.

“It’s the best thing that ever happened and it makes it easier to compete here because nobody is asking her questions. All the pressure is on Candace so it allows her to just come in and compete. She has done everything I’ve asked of her, (Candace Hill) is the only person to run faster than her; this is the beginning.”

St Fort is looking forward to stepping on the track in the Colombian city.

“My expectations are to execute my game plan well. Of course the goal is to get first, but I’ve come a long way and just to be here is an experience. Whatever the outcome is I’ll be happy.”

Another T&T athlete, Akidah Briggs will compete in the girls’ shot put qualifying competition from 10.35 this morning. The final is scheduled for 8.30pm.

Akanni Hislop was expected to face the starter late yesterday in the third and final boys’ 100m semi-final heat. The final was scheduled for ten o’clock last night.

Hislop was a runaway winner of heat two in the preliminary round of the boys’ century. The T&T sprinter clocked 10.53 seconds for a comfortable cushion on second-placed Jack Hale (10.66) of Australia.

Hislop had the sixth fastest time in the opening round. Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, meanwhile, confirmed his status as favourite with victory in heat one in a Championship record time of 10.30 seconds. The previous Championship standard of 10.31 was established by T&T’s Darrel Brown in the 2001 final, in Debrecen, Hungary.

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This letter is meant to highlight the plight of the residents of Central Park in Couva who, on a regular basis, are being held hostage in their homes and bombarded with excessive noise from the Ato Boldon Stadium. The noise has nothing to do with legitimate sporting activity but rather from fetes, car shows and various activities which are being hosted in the stadium car park with increasing frequency.

The housing development is adjacent to and downwind of the compound of both the stadium and the National Cricket Centre. These facilities were built long after the housing development which has been in existence for over 30 years. It is grossly unfair that these relatively recent facilities should be the source of untold distress to residents who purchased land and built their homes (without any government’s help) in a quiet neighbourhood hoping to escape the hustle and bustle of our increasingly stressful society.

The events start at low noise levels but increase with time and sometimes go on for more than six hours—late into the night and into the early hours of the morning. Residents are totally stressed out by continuous, excessive noise over long periods, depriving them of their peace and quiet and enjoyment of their property.

The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) has shown empathy and tries to mediate a win-win situation, but it appears that they are obligated to grant a variation to the ambient noise levels.

The stadium management has indicated the need to raise revenue and therefore is constrained to allow these events. The police intervene from time to time but the noise levels increase once the officers leave.

We are calling on the Minister of Sport to look into this very distressing state of affairs. We shudder to think that the cycling velodrome and the aquatic centre, both of which are being constructed near to the stadium and could be opened soon, might adopt a similar policy.

It is time for the authorities to step in and protect the legitimate rights of law-abiding, taxpaying citizens who, instead of looking for handouts, engage in lawful employment and just want some rest, relaxation and rejuvenation after battling the stresses of the workday or work-week.

E Rampaul

Couva

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