Njisane Phillip pedalled his way to T&T's third gold of the 21st Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, yesterday. The T&T rider, however had to come from behind to win the Match Sprint final at the Ramey Cecader Velodrome. After losing out to Venezuela's Hersony Canelon (10.865 seconds) in a very keenly contested first ride, Phillips of Siparia, who enjoyed a training stint at the UCI Training Centre, in Swizterland earlier this year, won the next two rides (11.650 and 11.835) to snatch gold, his first ever at this level.
The medal for Phillip, a triple gold medal winner at last year's Pan Am Junior Championship in Mexico, was his second in two nights after he partnered with Christopher Sellier and Azikiwe Kellar for a Sprint Team bronze on Friday. His gold medal was also the third gold for T&T to add to swimmer George Bovell III (50 metres freestyle) and shooter, Roger Daniel's (men's 25m Standard Pistol) performances. Earlier on in the round-of-16, Phillip defeated El Salvador's Eduarod Averlar in 11.630 seconds followed by a win over Dominican Republic's Estanislao Lantigua in two straight rides, 11.614 seconds and 11.087 in. He then swept Colombian Cristian Tamayo in two straight rides (11.023 bsecs and 11.071) while Venezuela's Hersony Canelon beat Barbadian, Barry Forde in similar fashion after the latter had ousted Kellar.
T&T narrowly missed out on another cycling medal last night when undisputed Road champion Emile Abraham was fourth in the men's Points Race with 21 points, three points shy of the third place finisher. Daniel failed to add to his gold and bronze medal tally after he placed fifth in the men's 25m Centre Fire Pistol with a score of 559 points (289 - precision/270 - rapid). The winner was Julio Molina of El Salvador with 575, with silver for Felipe Beuvrin of Venezuela (566) and bronze, Puerto Rico's Neston Pena (565) while Hermes Barahona was fourth with 564. Rhodney Allen's T&T other challenger for a gold medal was 20th with a score of 527.
