media_artricles :: 2015

Nero in T&T’s trio for NACAC cross country championship

National long distance queen Tonya Nero will head a three member team to the 2015 Pan American/North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Cross Country Cup which will get underway in Barranquilla, Colombia today.

A release from the National Association of Athletic Administration (NAAA) stated that Nero will compete in the women's 6km along with the reigning national cross country champion Samantha Shukla. National men's champion George Smith will line up in the men's 8k. NAAA Committee member Dawn Washington will serve a manager.

Nero will be hoping to emulate her medal winning performance in 2012 where she captured silver at the NACAC Champs hosted at the Queen's Park Savannah. Nero will also be aiming to better her 11th place in 2014 when the event was held in Mt Irvine, Tobago.

Nero, Shukla and Smith are veterans at the NACAC Championships with Nero first competing in the junior women's 4k in 2007 in Clement, Florida, US finishing 19th. Shukla and Smith made their debut at the 2009 edition also in Florida. Shukla was 19th in the junior's women's race while Smith was 24th in the junior men's 6k event. Shukla won her first medal to date in 2010 when the championships were hosted at the Mt Irvine where she was a member of the T&T's women's bronze medal team. Nero led the national women's team to silver in 2012.

The 2015 three member team is the smallest national contingent in recent years to the Championships. Sportscore Tobago sent e-mails to Serrette today with questions on the drop in team size but no reply has been received.

During the Pan American Cup the NACAC and Consudatle (South American) champions will be crowned. Two Hundred and three (203) athletes and forty-eight (48) officials from twenty-one (21) countries have been confirmed to attend.

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