Local athletes suffer mixed fortunes
...CAC Games in El Salvador
By Michael DaSilva
Stabroek News
November 26, 2002
Guyana’s squash representatives to the 19th Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games suffered mixed fortunes on the first two days of competition in El Salvador.
According to reports from El Salvador, overseas based Guyanese, Maxine Weithers, marched into the quarter-final round of the men’s individual squash tournament, while former Caribbean ladies champion Jillian Griffith-Lilico and local `Queen’ Nicolette Fernandes drew byes to the second round.
Local men’s champion Shawn Badrinauth and his compatriot Robert Fernandes, failed to get past the second round in their respective groups, while Kathy Shuffler lost in a first round match of the women’s individual competition.
Weithers beat Cerezo Asturias of Guatemala 3-0 in a first round fixture before getting past Carlos Schonenberg (El Salvador) by a 3-1 margin in the second round.
Weithers, a former world rated player is down to meet Guatemala’s Sobral Martinez in his group’s semi-final. Martinez got the better of Jamaica’s R. Prescod by a 3-0 margin to set up a date with Weithers.
The winner of the Weithers versus Martinez match, will meet the winner of the match between the Mexican pair of Galvez Sanchez and Ferre Baltazar, who defeated Guyana’s Luke Fraser 3-1 in a first round encounter.
Robert Fernandes who was drawn in Weithers’ group, got past St. Lucia’s Charlie Sonson by a 3-1 margin in a first round encounter, but went down 0-3 to Mexico’s Galvez Sanchez in round two.
In the other group, Badrinauth beat Barbados’ S. Sampson 3-0, but lost to Colombia’s Samper Garcia by a 0-3 margin.
Shuffler lost her first round match against Jamaica’s K. Anderson, by a 0-3 margin.
Griffith-Lilico and Nicolette Fernandes were down to play Colombia’s Vallejo Guevara and Barbados’ Kristina Evelyn respectively, in second round encounters.
Evelyn, an English-woman by birth, defeated Nicolette in the women’s final of the Caribbean Championships earlier this year. However, it was reported that at the time, Nicolette was nursing an ankle injury.
In CAC karate action, Guyana’s David Hardy failed to get past the second round when he came up against El Salvador’s Juan Salmeron in the men’s individual Kumite competition. He won his first round fixture against Cayman Islands’ H. Dams. Salmeron went on to take the silver medal.
Guyana’s three-member weightlifting team was due to get into action yesterday, while the two-man boxing team will start trading punches on Friday.
The lone table tennis player Godfrey Munroe will get into action later in the week, while local track athlete, Nyota Peters, will start strutting her stuff on December 1.
