National sprinter Jereem "The Dream" Richards and rower Felice Chow copped silver medals on Friday at the Pan American Games, while late Thursday night, swimmer Dylan Carter bagged a bronze medal to increase T&T's medal count to ten. T&T now has two gold medals (in cycling), six silver (in track cycling/road cycling/athletics/rowing) and two bronze (boxing, swimming).
On another cold afternoon in Lima, Peru, Richards, racing out of lane two, made an impressive run to place second in the men's 200 metres final with a time of 20.38 seconds.
"It is always good to come out here and represent T&T to the best of my ability. I Didn't get the gold but I'm pretty satisfied with a silver medal being in lane two was very, very difficult to try to put myself into the race very early but I'm very satisfied with the performance," said Richards with his familiar bright smile plastered on his face.
"I did what I intended to do, I didn't get the win but the execution was really good for me."
Chow continues to wow after placing second with the time of 7:46.53 in Women's Singles Scull Final at the Albufera Medio Mundo during the morning period.
She said, "It feels great to win a Pan Am silver medal for T&T, for my family that travelled all the way to cheer.
"It was tough competition so that made the podium spot so much sweeter."
IN ATHLETICS
Richards followed Ecuador's Alex Quinonez to the line, who won gold with a 20.27-timing. Yancarlos Martinez of Dominican Republic was the bronze-medal winner in 20.44.
"He is a great competitor and I was hoping to beat him here so it could give me some confidence going into the World Championships because he a 19-second guy and I wasn't very far off of him today (yesterday). I still have faith and confidence in myself," said the national 200m champion.
In the women's version of the race, Semoy Hackett placed eighth while challenging for the gold, crossed in a time of 23.62 in a race won by Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 22.43, a new Pan Am record, the previous record was held American Evelyn Ashford (22.45) in 1979.
Hurdler Reubin Walters ran a season's best 13.88 seconds in the opening semifinal heat of the men's m hurdles, placing sixth and 11th overall and did not advance to the final.
The semifinals of the men's 4x400 relay which were scheduled for Friday were scratched and went straight to the final carded for Saturday.
In the relays, the quartet of Kamaria Durant, Michelle-Lee Ahye, Mauricia Prieto and Kelly-Ann Baptiste, running in that order, ran a season's best 43.57 and placed fourth in the women's 4x100m final.
Winning gold was Brazil with a sb 43.04, Canada won silver with a sb 43.37 and USA, the bronze medallist, with 43.39.
In the men's 4x100m final, T&T foursome in the order of Jerod Elcock, Keston Bledman, Akanni Hislop and Kyle Greaux, crossed won silver in a season's best 38.46. First was Brazil in 38.27 and third USA in 38.79.
Over on the field, defending shot put champion Cleopatra Borel placed eighth in the final with her best throw measuring 17.37m. The national champion was the lone T&T athlete advancing to the medal round after finishing seventh after the first round with a best throw of 16.97m.
T&T's other field athlete Portious Warren did not progress to compete for a medal. Her best effort measured 16.55m to finish in ninth spot.
IN ROWING
Chow continues to wow after placing second with the time of 7:46.53 in Women's Singles Scull Final at the Albufera Medio Mundo.
She shared that the people around her keep her motivated saying: "Pushing and hustling, trying to find my limits, my family, my friends and rowing partners help and encourage me all the way."
Chow has barely finished celebrating and her mind is already onto her next challenge, trials in Rio de Janiero in Brazil for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
"I will be training towards Olympic trials and then hopefully for Tokyo if I'm able to qualify T&T for rowing a second time," said the local rower.
IN SWIMMING
Carter won T&T's seventh medal after touching the wall in third place in 54.42 seconds in the men's 100m backstroke final at the Aquatic Centre at the National Sporting Village.
"It was good to get it because I am deserving of the win, I know I did the work," said Carter on his bronze medal but was still lamenting over missing out on a medal in the men's 200m backstroke by .07 seconds.
"I'm disappointed with 200m. I think the 200 was a better swim.
"It was a good feeling to at least take something home with me," said an appreciative Carter, who was back in the pool on Friday morning for the heats of the Men's 50m freestyle. Competing in heat four he placed fourth in a time of 22.87, the 12th fastest time overall, qualifying for tonight's B Final.
The Central American and Caribbean (CAC) multiple gold medallist and the 2018 World Championships bronze medallist now joins former national swimming star George Bovell as a Pan Am Games medallist.
"It's an honour, joining the legendary swimmer from Trinidad," said Carter "I feel proud to carry on the tradition. I feel somebody has to do it and I refuse to let the sport of swimming die in Trinidad so I'm going to keep doing it as long as I can representing the best that I can to inspire a younger generation hopefully to inspire someone to come and fill in what I have left off when my time is up."
On T&T's successes thus far in the 18-day event, he said: "The team is doing their thing, in cycling and on the track and boxing. I am just happy to be able to contribute."
Carter plans to take a short break rest before resuming training next month.
"I'm going to take a week or so rest then we've (pro team) got a lot of racing so I have to get back into racing like September.
"We have the inaugural season of the ISL (International Swimming League) so that's like our pro swim league that starts early October which I'm lucky enough to be part of. We kick off our first meet which I believe in Dallas on October 15 or so. So just starting to prepare for that and it runs through December.
Before that, though he plans to return home to spend time with his family, a number of them were in Lima cheering him on.
"I will be in Trinidad for about a month. Just going to do some work down there training with my dad, lifting some weights and stuff," said a smiling Carter, happy to nab T&T's lone swim medal thus far.
Gabriela Donahue was the only other local swimmer in action late Thursday, competing in the women's 100m backstroke B Final and she ended in third place with a 1:04.62-clocking.
IN ARCHERY
In the men's recurve individual 1/16 round, T&T's Daniel Catariz was beaten by Hugo Franco of Cuba, 7-1.
The competition took place at the rugby field and the local archer, who set a new national record in the opening round, started credibly, sharing points from the first set 1-1 (26-26).
However, ever as the best in five series progressed, the Cuban outmatched Catariz and went on to win the next three sets, 2-0 (29-24, 27-24, 27-26).
On Wednesday, in the individual ranking (72 arrows) round, Catariz produced a score of 649 points.
IN SAILING
Olympian Andrew Lewis finished overall tied for sixth place but dropped to seventh after the tie-breaker after the medal race of the men's dinghy open series at Bahia de Paracas.
On Thursday, the national sailor reached the final event after completing the 10-race series tied in the sixth spot with Canadian Robert Davis, following his 10th-place finish in races nine and 10.
T&T's other sailor Kelly-Ann Arrindell after 11th and 12th finishes in her final two races respectively was 12th overall in the women's dinghy open series and did not qualify to compete for a medal.
IN GOLF
Local golfer Ysabelle Lawrence had another tough day out on the course at the Lima Golf Club but moved up a spot-up into 29th following round two in the women's competition.
She was 18 over par on a par 71 course and shot 160 over two days.