T&T girl's team ended in the cellar-spot of the six-team Pan American Youth (Under-17) Water Polo Championships hosted by the Swimming Union of the Americans (UANA) after an 8-16 loss to Peru in the play-off match for fifth to sixth spots at the National Aquatic Centre, in Balmain, Couva on Thursday.
Commenting on the performance of the girls, USA-born T&T coach Jeff Passwater said despite the results not going their way, the team has improved throughout the competition.
"We have surely improved overall and this will augur well for the players in future tournaments," said Jeffwater.
The women's final today from 10.20am will feature North American neighbours, USA, and Canada after their contrasting semifinals wins.
Canada overcame a stubborn Argentina 11-9 while the USA coasted past Brazil 22-4 in their final-four encounters.
Today, before the girls' final, Argentina and Brazil will meet for bronze from 9 am.
In the Under-17 Boys’ competition, T&T picked up its third point after a 9-9 draw with the Bahamas in a clash of Carifta teams, with the host outscoring the visitors 3-1 in the final period to earn a share of the spoils.
Kelvin Caesar scored all three goals for T&T in the opening quarter while the Bahamian captain Gabriel Sastre got two and Oliver Roberts, one as both teams ended 3-3 while in the second period, Nathann Hinds effort for the host was cancelled out by Roberts to leave both countries level at 4-4 at the half-time interval.
The Bahamas jumped ahead in the third period, 8-6, with Sastre (two), and Nicholas Wallace-Whitfield and Dominic Beneby all on target while Caesar and Yannick Robertson were the scorers for T&T which trailed going into the final period.
Spurred on by their home supporters, the T&T boys dug deep and got a goal each from Caesar, his fifth of the match, Marvin Gillard-Bruce and captain, Gillette Bruce, but the visitors got the last goals of the match from Wallace-Whitfield to tie the contest.
With the drawn result, both T&T and the Bahamas ended with 1-1-5 records and three points each, however, the host finished sixth and the Bahamians, seventh, by a better goal difference.
Thursday's Results
Girl's
Fifth-place playoff:
Peru 16 vs T&T 8
Semifinals
Canada 11 vs Argentina 9
USA 22 vs Brazil 4
Boy's
T&T 9 vs Bahamas 9
USA 19 vs Canada 4
Brazil 9 vs Argentina 7
Colombia 20 vs Peru 5
Friday's Matches
Girl’s
Bronze: Argentina vs Brazil, 9 am
Gold: Canada vs USA, 10.20 am
Boy’s
Seventh playoff; Bahamas vs Peru, 12 noon
Fifth playoff: Colombia vs T&T, 1.20 pm
Bronze playoff: Argentina vs Canada, 2.40 pm
Gold playoff: USA vs Brazil, 4 pm