MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago’s sprint relay side smashed a 24-year-old record en route to gold on the 12th day of competition at the Central American and Caribbean Games on Thursday night.
The team, comprising Rondel Sorillo, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender and Keston Bledman, captured gold with a record run of 38.24 to cross the line ahead of the favoured Jamaicans who finished second in 38.78.
Olympian Churandy Martina led the Netherlands Antilles to third in 38.82 seconds while St Kitts and Nevis were last.
T&T’s time smashed the old record of 38.74 set by Cuba back at the 1986 Games in the Dominican Republic.
Bahamian Leevan Sands, meanwhile, won the men’s triple jump to also highlight the day’s action on the athletics programme.
The 28-year-old measured 17.21 metres to capture gold ahead of Grenadian Randy Lewis who was second with a leap of 17.20, while Haitian Samyr Laine finished third with 17.01.
Sands, who won bronze at the Beijing Olympics two years ago, trailed Lewis throughout the competition and needed his final jump to secure top honours.
Jamaica picked up another medal in the sprint relays when they copped bronze in the women’s edition.
The team of Audria Segree, Jovanee Jarrett, Andrea Bliss and Anastasia Le-Roy clocked a season-best 44.27 to follow home winners Puerto Rico (43.46) and Colombia (43.63).
In the men’s 800 metres final, Aldwyn Sappleton grabbed bronze with a time of one minute, 48.12 seconds while Marian Burnett of Guyana took silver in the women’s version with a clocking of 2:04.45.
In the women’s discus, Trinidadian Annie Alexander took silver with a throw of 51.03 metres to finish behind winner Maria Cubillan of Venezuela.