Guyana's Luke Fraser restored some pride for all Guyanese by advancing to today's semi-final round of the men's individual plate competition, of the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games.
According to reports, yesterday Fraser beat Sri Lanka's NH Samarasinghe 9-6, 9-2, 9-0 in a quarter-final fixture and will face Zimbabwe's J. Engelbrecht today. The winner will advance to tomorrow's final.
After losing his opening match to Northern Irelands' S. Richardson (7-9, 9-7, 9-0, 9-7) in the round of 64 last week, Fraser went into the plate competition at the bottom of the draw where he came from one game down to beat Papua New Guinea's D. Hunter (PNG) 1-9, 9-4, 7-9, 10-8, 9-7. In reaching the semi-final round, Engelbrecht beat Guyana's Regan Pollard 9-3, 9-3, 9-5 in the round of 16 plate competition then went on the brush aside St. Vincent and the Grenadines' J. Bentick 9-3, 9-0, 9-5 in a quarter-final fixture. Bentick had secured a walk-over from Guyana's Garfield Wiltshire who originally accompanied the squash team as manager, but who played in the round of 64 last week and was knocked out after one match. Fraser will team up with Nicolette Fernandes tomorrow when the mixed doubles competition gets underway.
Fernandes was knocked out in the first round of the women's singles competition and was down to play her first plate match yesterday, but up to press time, no results were available.
Guyana's lone success at this year's Commonwealth Games came on Sunday when 400-metre runner Aliann Pompey romped to victory in the women's 400-metre final, returning a time of 51.63 seconds.
In winning the event, Pompey beat defending champion, Jamaica's Sandie Richards who placed third in 51.79 seconds. Scotland's Lee McConnell ended second 0.05 seconds after Pompey crossed the finish line.