The USA Women’s team kept up their impressive form to secure gold and a spot at the 2018 World Cup with a 2-1 victory over a resilient Argentine side while the Trinidad and Tobago Men stunned Argentina to take gold.
While parts of the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago are seriously affected by flood their male hockey team brought joy to their faces with a dominant performance in the final of their men’s gold medal fixture against Argentina to win 7-0. The Trinidadians who had been impressive throughout the tournament continued their outstanding form as they completely stifled the Argentines while hitting them constantly on the counter attack.
The USA women played unbeaten to take gold and their berth at the 2018 World Cup
Mickell Pierre and Akim Toussaint were the stand up guys for the Trinidadians with a brace each. Pierre opened the scoring in the third minute and added another in the 20th while Toussaint’s goals came in the 11th and 34th minutes respectively. The other goals came courtesy of captain Solomon Eccles in the 23rd, Marcus James in the 28th and Aidan de Gannes in the 36th minute.
Earlier in the women’s final, the USA held their nerve to win against the stubborn Argentines as Ali Campbell buried a direct penalty in the 35th minute to win it for the north American side. In the first half the Argentines kept the Americans at bay whilst initiating attacks of their own which simply were not good enough. However, in the second half Katie Gerzabek netted in the 31st minute before Emma Yanzi equalised just three minutes later.
Trinidad and Tobago are the champions of the Pan American Indoor Hockey 2017 and have qualified for the 2018 World Cup
Speaking to Guyana Times Sports after her side’s victory an emotional Sammy Popper said, “It’s amazing, we have been working for this for so long and to see it actually happen is incredible and I’m so proud of everyone on the team”. Popper who was USA’s standout player through out the tournament noted that it was her teammates and all the supporters back home who kept her inspired.
Having secured the lone spot for the 2018 world cup, Popper maintained that that her team will keep working hard as a unit now that they have first hand experience of the type of competition that the game brings.
Host nation Guyana ended the tournament with losses for the men and women’s teams respectively. The men came up against former champions Canada and were impressive in the first half, however as has been the case throughout the tournament their concentration fell away in the latter stages and Canada capitalised on this to win 5-2. Robert France opened the scoring in the first minute of the game to get the sizable crowd on its feet but Canada’s Jonathan Roberts soon equalised seven minutes later.
Devohn Nohrona Texeira then edged Canada ahead in the 18th minute before Andrew Stewart brought Guyana level in the very next minute. That was the last sight of goal for the Guyanese as Gurtej Dhaliwal in the 29th and Roberts with two in the 34th and 40th minutes sealed the bronze medal for the Canadians.
Meanwhile, in the women’s bronze medal fixture Uruguay defeated Canada 3-2 with Camila de Maria netting a brace while Maria Viana Ache scored one goal. The goal scorers for Canada were Kathleen Leahy and Alison Lee.
The Guyanese ladies in their first outing of the Pan American Championships had to settle for sixth place as they were beaten 3-1 by Trinidad and Tobago.
The tournament MVP for the males went to Guyanese born Jonathan Roberts of Canada while the female accolade went to Ali Campbell of the USA.
