TTO women’s hockey senior team head coach Akim Toussaint praised his squad for a disciplined defensive display as they upset Mexico 0-1 to clinch seventh spot at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games yesterday.

Gabrielle Thompson’s second-minute field goal laid the foundation for an extremely stout defensive display in a game in which their opponents, ranked 31st in the world, commanded the attacking play after TTO earned five penalty corners in the first quarter, one of which produced a save from Mexico custodian Jesus Castillo to Shaniah De Freitas’s goalward shot.

From then on, Mexico’s captain Fernanda Oviedo marshalled her troops to hunt the equaliser, completing 13 attacking circle penetrations in the remaining three quarters and 13 penalty corners.

But the Mexicans lacked the required potency and when TTO’s goalkeeper Petal Derry saved Valeria Espinoza’s shot from the penalty corner in the 42nd minute — the only save the experienced Derry was called upon to make – the Mexican shoulders and heads hung disconsolately.

Cheered on by some of their male counterparts who also clinched seventh in their competition the day before, TTO captain Avion Ashton’s side repelled the final desperate attacks of the Mexicans in the dying minutes to hold on for the victory.

“We knew these are the games we would have been competitive in. We knew we had to stick to the game plan to ensure we come up with the win,” Toussaint explained. “Mexico has beaten us probably the last five times that we played them. We knew if we stick to the game plan and get that one goal, that we could actually defend because that was one of the main game plans.”

Toussaint’s charges ensured their defensive short corner unit was strong enough to keep the Mexicans at bay.

“I am very, very proud of the girls, especially the defensive corner unit because about 16 or so corners (actually 13) zero goals, excellent work by them,” Toussaint said.

Reflecting on the tournament, Toussaint said the competition represented “ a learning curve” for his women’s squad.

“We actually wanted the sixth place to qualify for the other tournament but even though we didn’t get that one and (we were) so disappointed to lose that 1-0 to Cuba (in the first crossover match), we stuck to the game plan coming into this Mexico game, knowing that we are not just coming here to lie down. We are going to play to the whistle and that’s exactly what the girls did,” said Toussaint.

Toussaint added that with a couple of the women’s squad set to hang up their sticks at this Games’ conclusion, the focus must now shift to building a team that can be competitive at international level.

“Going forward, we are going to have a lot of girls leaving the team because this is a couple of the girls’ last tournament,” Toussaint explained. “We gonna have to focus solely on development, getting a good bit of girls into the sport as well as the ones we have in Trinidad right now, really getting them developed into an international standard. So that is the main goal when we get back to T&T.”

Canoeing

At the canoe sprint competition at Laguna Grande San Pedro de La Paz, TTO ‘s Nicholas Robinson finished seventh and last in the men’s K1 1000m B final. He was timed in four minutes, 15.69 seconds.

Golf

And at the Prince of Wales Country Club, TTO’s lone golfer Chris Richards Jr kept on improving to tie for tenth for round three with a three-under par 69.

But he has only managed to overtake one competitor, Venezuela’s Rocco Saraceni, moving from 30th to 29th for a three-day aggregate of 12 over par 228 (83 + 76 + 69).

He achieved the 69 despite a double bogey on the second hole and bogeys on the tenth and 11th holes. He fired birdies on the first, third, fourth, ninth and 14th holes, bolstered by a double birdie on the 17th.