CAC Gold for Keshorn, Jeremy
Keshorn Walcott and Kareem Richards were among the Trinidad and Tobago athletes who showed their class at the Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) as they both won gold medals in San Salvador, El Salvador.
It was a memorable day as the T&T athletes added five medals to their tally, three gold and two silver. T&T’s overall medal tally at the games is now 17, seven gold, six silver and four bronze.
Richards showed his quality in the 400m distance copping gold in a personal best time of 44.54 seconds. The T&T runner won the event comfortably slowing down at the end. Michael Joseph took the silver medal in 44.90 and Gilles Biron of Martinique was third in 45.06.
Richards does not run the 400m individual event regularly as he focuses mostly on the 4 × 400m relay and the 200m event.
Walcott continued to have a commendable season as he copped gold with atop throw of 83.60m. The T&T thrower has thrown over 80 metres consistently over the last month which includes meets in Europe prior to the CAC Games. Walcott threw the spear 77.68m on his first attempt, before his gold medal throw in the second round. His other completed throw was a 76.90m effort on his fourth throw.
Mexican David Carreon, who bagged silver, was more than five metres behind Walcott with a 78.03m throw on his third attempt. Jamaican Elvis Graham earned bronze with a 76.43m heave in his first throw.
T&T also won two medals in the 4 × 100m relay events as the men won gold and the women snatched silver. In the men’s 4 × 100m final, the T&T quartet of Kion Benjamin, David Augustine, Carlton Hosten and national 100m champion Eric Harrison Jnr took gold in 38.30. TT almost broke the CAC Games record of 38.24, which T&T have held since 2010.
The Dominican Republic team of Erick Sanchez, Yancarlos Martinez, Christopher Valdez and Jose Gonzalez came second in 38.61. The Venezuelan squad of Alexis Nieves, David Vivas, Bryant Alamo and Rafael Vasquez ended third in 39.13.
The experience Reyare Thomas, along with youngsters Sanaa Frederick, Akilah Lewis and Leah Bertrand took silver for TT in 43.43.
Joshua Johnson, one of many chess players representing T&T, copped silver in his CAC debut.
