Competing in the 12-man final, Tobagonian Wright, the national champion and record-holder, had a leap of 7.57 metres on his first attempt, before fouling his second attempt, then leaping 6.86 on his third attempt to be outside of the top six competitors after his first three efforts, thus failing to advance to the final round.

Bahamian, Laquan Nairn won gold with a best leap of 8.08, his second attempt of six while India's Sreeshankar Sreeshankar also leapt 8.08m but on his fifth attempt for the silver, and South African, Jovan Van Vuuren, third with a best of 8.06m, on his second attempt as well.

Jamaican Shawn-D Thompson ended in the fourth spot with a best of 8.05m, a season-best while India's Muhammed Aness Yahiya (7.97), Australian Henry Frayne (7.94m), Dominica's Tristan James (7.85m), Turks and Caicos Islands' Ifeanyichukwu Otuonye (7.80m), a season-best, and Australian Christopher Mitrevski (7.70m) all finished ahead of Wright.

Guyana's Emanuel Archibald (7.54m) and Thapelo Monaiwa (7.37m) were 11th and 12th, respectively.

On Tuesday in the qualifying round, Wright qualified with a leap of 7.58m on his first attempt which was good enough for the eighth spot in the Qualifying Round Group A of ten competitors and the 12th and final qualifier overall ahead of countryman Kelsey Daniel.

The top qualifier and lone athlete to go above 8.00 metres was Sreeshankar with 8.05 followed by Nairn (7.90m), Van Vuuren (7.87m), Thompson (7.85m), Frayne (7.85m), Archibald (7.83m), Mitrevski (7.76m), Yahiya (7.68m), James (7.65m), Otuonye (7.65m) and Monaiwa (7.65m).

Richards, St Hillaire, Greaux breeze into men's 200m semis

T&T trio of former world indoor 400m champion Jereem Richards, Dwight St Hillaire, and Kyle Greaux all advanced to the semifinal round of the men's 200m.

The 28-year-old Richards stormed to victory in heat four in 20.68 seconds followed by fellow automatic qualifier Swaziland's Sibusiso Matsenjwa who clocked 20.79 while St Kitts and Nevis' Warren Hazel (21.17), and Sierra Leone's Ibrahim Karim Bangura (21.28) qualified as fastest losers.

Competing in heat one, St Hillaire clocked 20.85 to join the winner of the heat Cameroon's Emmanuel Eseme (20.44) as automatic qualifiers to the semifinals while Nigerian Ifeanyi Emmanuel Ojeli (21.12) and Antigua and Barbuda's Darion Skerritt (21.24) advanced as two fastest losers.

In heat five, Ghana's Joseph Paul Amoah won in 20.58 with Greaux second in 21.01 for the other automatic spot in the heat while St Lucian Lenyn Kish Leonce (21.22) and Kenya's Hesborn Ochieng (21.30) qualified among the fastest losers.

Today in the semifinals, Greaux will be first on the track from 12.09 pm from lane four against Nigerian Alaba Olukunie Akintola, Ochieng, Pakistan's Shajar Abbas, England's Zharnel Hughes, Canada's Brendon Rodney, Madagascar's Russel Alexander Nasir Taib and Hazel.

St Hillaire lines up in semifinal heat two and 12.17 in lane seven against Skerritt, Leonce, Eseme, Kenya's Dan Kiviasi Asamba, England's Adam Gemili, Nigerian Udodi Chudi Onwuzurike and Jamaican Kadrian Goldson.

In semifinal three from 12.25 pm, Richards runs out of lane five with St Kitts and Nevis' Nadale Buntin, Bangura, Matsenjwa, Kenya's Mike Mokamba Nyang'au, Ammoah, St Lucia's Delan Edwin, and Ojeli.

The top two finishers in each semifinal and the two fastest losers overall will qualify for tomorrow's (Saturday's) final from 4.18 pm.

Prieto advances to women's 200 semis

In the women's 200m heat five, T&T's Mauricia Prieto, 26, crossed the line in the fifth spot in 23.69 seconds to advance to the semifinals as one of the fastest losers and 13th overall, behind heat winner, Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah (22.80), Scotland's Beth Dobbin (23.10) and Australian Jacinta Beecher (23.13) who all qualified from the heat automatically.

Today (Friday), Prieto will go after a spot in the final when she competes in the third and final semifinal heat from lane one against Cameroon's Linda Angounou, Dobbin, Thompson-Herah, British Virgin Islands' Beyonce De Freitas, Canada's Natasha Mc Donald, Malawi's Asimeye Simwaka, and Papua New Guinea's Toea Wisil with the final set for tomorrow (Saturday) from 4.44 pm.

In the women's high jump, 24-year-old USA-based Tyra Gittens just missed out on qualification for the final after she placed seventh of nine athletes in the Group A qualifying round with a best of 1.76m on her second attempt at the mark, after which she failed to clear the 1.81m distance.

She will hope for much better fortune today (Friday) when she contests the long jump qualifying round in Group A from 6.40 am.

The T&T men's 4x400 men's relay quartet will line up against Barbados, Kenya, India and Turks and Caicos from 6.49 am in semifinal heat two while Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, Jamaica, Zambia, Botswana and Singapore will contest semifinal one from 6.37 am with the final carded for Sunday from 3.30 pm.

Para-athlete Akeem Stewart makes his Games bow when he competes in the men's shot put final from 2.06 pm while Asa Guevara runs in the men's 400m semifinal from 4.20 pm after he placed third in the second heat in 45.98 seconds on Wednesday to advance as an automatic qualifier with the seventh best overall, behind heat winner, Jamaican Nathon Allen, who won in 45.18, and Botswana's Leungo Scotch, second in 45.75 in heat one.

In his semifinal, Wright will battle with Sri Lanka's Katinga Hewa Kumarage, Zambia's Kennedy Luchembe, Nigerian Samson Nathaniel, Jamaica's Nathon Allen, England's Matthew Hudson-Smith, Botswana's Leungo Scotch, and Bahamian Alonzo Russell.

Paul beaten in Super Heavyweight quarters

Boxer Nigel Paul, 32, who won a bronze medal at the 2021 World Championship in Belgrade last year came up short in his effort to advance to the medal round after losing 5-0 on points in his men's super heavyweight (over 92kg) quarterfinal against England's Delicious Orie, who had a first-round bye.

On Sunday, Paul made an impressive start to his campaign in the men's super heavyweight (over 92kg) against Jean Christophe Stephan Otendy of Mauritius winning his bout after the referee stopped the contest with one minute, 38 seconds in the opening round at the Number 5 Hall 4 in their round-of-16 bout.

Tiana Guy also stepped into the ring for her women's featherweight (over 54 - 57 kg) quarterfinal bout against Nigerian Elizabeth Oshoba, but did not advance after a narrow 2-3 loss on points.

The judges' scorecard had Oshoba winning 29-27 while the fifth judge had Guy winning by a similar margin, and the three other judges all called it 28-all with the Nigerian being deducted a point during the contest.

Cyclist Campbell 7th in women's Individual Time Trial

T&T women's cyclist Teniel Campbell, 24, ended in seventh spot from a field of 31 entrants in the Road Cycling Individual Time Trial at West Park in a time of 42 minutes, 07.99 seconds, just two minutes, 02.79 seconds outside of the gold medal rider, Australian Grace Browne's time of 40:05.20.

Securing the silver medal was England's Anna Henderson in 40:38.55 while New Zealander Georgia Williams bagged bronze in 41:25.27 followed by Australian Georgia Baker (41:44.85), and Isle of Man duo, Lizzie Holden (41:48.78) and Rebecca Storrie (41:53.49).

No success for table tennis players in doubles

The local pair of Charlotte Knaggs and Chayse McQuan were defeated in their Mixed Doubles round-of-32 by Canadians Hollie Naughton and Nick Sachvie 7-11, 4-11 at the University Hockey and Squash Centre and in table tennis at the NEC Table Tennis Court, five-time Caribbean women's Singles champion, France-based Rheann Chung, 37, and 18-year-old Derron Douglas put up a spirited effort in a loss to Colin Dalgliesh and Rebecca Plaistow of Scotland, 9-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 9-11.

Northern Ireland keeps Calypso Girls winless

At the NEC Arena, T&T "Calypso Girls" netballers ended their Pool B campaign with a dismal 0-5 record after a 41-32 loss to Northern Ireland.

The defeat for the Kemba Duncan-coached T&T follows losses to England (22-74), Uganda (28-68), New Zealand (24-80), and Malawi (30-70).

The Europeans who also entered the match with a 0-4 record as well were led by goal shoot Ciara Crosbie's 27 goals from 34 attempts while goal attack Emma Mageeadde eight from 14 as they held comfortable leads of 14-5, 24-15 and 32-22 at the end of the first three 15-minutes quarters before T&T won its first quarter of the competition, 10-9, the final period.

The substitute pair of goal shoot, Jenna Bowman, with four goals from eight attempts, and goal attack, Georgie Mc Grath, with two from three, were the other scorers for the winners.

A positive for the ÔCalypso Girls' was goal shoot Afeisha Noel who had a perfect 18 goals from 18 attempts, while goal attacks, Joelisa Cooper and her replacement, Tahirah Hollingsworth both added seven from nine attempts, respectively.

The defeat means that T&T with its 0-5 win-loss record in Pool B will face Barbados, who finished bottom of Pool A without a win as well in the playoff for the 11th spot from 9 am today (Friday).

Armstrong, Chase end beach vball campaign winless

In women's beach volleyball, debutants Phylecia Armstrong and Suraya Chase finished at the bottom of their Pool B four-team round-robin series after losing by default 0-21, 0-21 due to an injury against Sri Lankans Deepika Bandara and Chathurika Weeransinghe, from 4 pm.

In their previous matches, the T&T women were also beaten by Australians Talique Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar 7-21, 6-21 as well as Manolina Konstantinou and Zoi Konstantopoulou of Cyprus 7-21, 17-21.

T&T has so far won three medals at the games, all by cyclist Nicholas Paul, a gold, silver and bronze, to equal the medal haul of four years ago which was (two gold, one silver) with sprinters, Ahye and Jereem Richards the gold medal winners and Carter, adding a silver.

Paul, a former Naparima College student, has so far won all three medals for T&T, a gold in the keirin, silver in the match sprint and bronze in the kilometre Time Trial and joined fellow cyclist Roger Gibbon, Mike Agostini (athletics), Michelle-Lee Ahye (Athletics), Kent Bernard (athletics), Ato Boldon (athletics), Hugo Gittens (weightlifting), Wendell Mottley (athletics), Jereem Richards (athletics), Edwin Roberts (athletics) and Rodney Wilkes (weightlifting) as gold medal winners for T&T at any Commonwealth Games.