– Hooper sisters, Ramdhani spring into action today
Heading to Australia with much hype of returning with a medal, the Guyanese boxers faced the harsh reality of the 21st Commonwealth Games and are now out of medal contention.
On Monday, Keevin Allicock lost to Scotland’s Reece McFadden in the Round-of-sixteen of the Men’s 52kg Class. He lost 1-4 on the judges card. Only one Judge scored the contest in Allicock’s favour, 29-28. The other four officials had the fight 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28 in favour of McFadden.
Keevin Allicock
The previous day, compatriot Collin ‘Superman’ Lewis lost to South African Sinethemba Blom in the Round of 16 of the Men’s 64kg Class. Only one Judge scored the three-round contest in Lewis’ favour, 29-28. The other four judges had the fight 29-28, 30-27, 30-26, 29-28 in favour of Blom.
In athletics, 400m specialist Winston George finished seventh in the semi-finals with a time of 47.25s which was way below par his 46.92 seconds in the heats. He will now focus on the 200m heats this evening for which he will be running out of Lane 3 with Season Best (SB) of 20.41s.
The Guyanese shooting team Down Under from right, Lennox Braithwaite, Paul Slowe and Ransford Goodluck
Emanuel Archibald time of 10.4s was not enough to help him progress to the 100m finals. The athlete, who is attached to the University of the West Indies (Jamaica), will shift his attention to today’s Long Jump qualifiers. He has a SB of 7.71m and will be the first to take flight in Category A.
Sisters Natricia and Natrina Hooper will take to the pit for the Triple Jump final. The duo has SB of 12.18m and 12.57m respectively which is below their Personal Best of 13.33m and 13.08m.
Badminton will have their first test with Narayan Ramdhani coming up against Saint Helena’s Vernon Smeed in the Round of 64 in the Men’s singles.
Additionally, Lennox Braithwaite and Ransford Goodluck are 7 points off the pace following day one of action at the Fullbore Championships – Queen’s Prize Pairs Finals.
Competing at the Belmont Full Bore Range, the pair ended the day with a total of 293 points and 29 Vs, ending the day with the distinction of being the only Caribbean nation to shoot possible on a day when the big guns held the sway.
At the 300 yards range, Goodluck shot a possible 50:6 while Braithwaite only dropped a single point 49:5. At 500 yards, it was Braithwaite who shot a possible 50:5 while Goodluck only dropped one point, 49:6.
It was at the 600 yards range that the Guyanese lost a combined 5 points, Braithwaite losing three (47:4) and Goodluck, 2 (48:3). It was a good day for the locals sharp shooters given the high level of competition in Australia and they also ended the day as the top Caribbean nation.
The Jamaican pair of Denis Nelson and David Rickman is 13th on the grid with 280:12 followed by Barbados’ Richard Arthur and Jason Wood (274:20) in 14th, Trinidad and Tobago’s Michael Perez and Delborn Joseph (268:12) in 15th and Antigua and Barbuda’s Edworth Benjamin and Desroy Maile (266:11) in 16th.
Three nations are separated by Vs at the top having dropped a single point, England 299:39, South Africa 299:37 and 299:35. Scotland and Northern Ireland are 4th and 5th on 298:31 and 298:30, respectively.
Wales and Jersey are next on 297:34 and 297:23, followed by New Zealand, Canada, Guernsey on 296:34, 295:33 and 294:30.On Monday, the Pairs Championship was set to be completed with the 900 and 1000 yards shoot. The Individual competition will commence after.
