Gold eludes Fraser, Fernandes
Stabroek News
December 1, 2002
The gold medal slipped out of the grasp of Guyana’s Luke Fraser and Nicollette Fernandes when they contested the mixed doubles squash finals of the XIX Central American and Caribbean Games against Mexico’s Marciano Aguilar and Samantha Teran yesterday.
According to reports from El Salvador, Fraser and Fernandes lost 2-1 to the 21-year-old Teran who won the women’s singles and her partner Aguilar.
The silver medal win pushed Guyana to 16th on the medal list with a tally of four medals, one silver and three bronze.
Mexico lead the overall medal standings with a total of 167 medals 71 of which are gold.
Guyana’s three other medals were all gained by the squash players.
Local squash queen Nicolette Fernandes gained a bronze medal in the individual singles competition and also a bronze in the women’s doubles with overseas-based Gillian Griffith-Lilico.
The remaining bronze medal was won by Maxim Weithers and Fraser who reached the semi-finals of the men’s doubles competition.
Guyana’s boxers were scheduled to be in action last night while there has been no reports on the performance of table tennis player Godfrey Munroe.
However, two Caribbean players including reigning Caribbean men’s singles champion Trevor Farley of Barbados have won their respective groups.
Farley emerged winner of Group Four while talented Jamaican Michael Hyatt easily won Group One. The other group winners are Puerto Rico’s David Fernandes who plays in the US and former Caribbean men’s singles champion Guillermo `Short man’ Munoz of Mexico.
With France-based professional Dexter St Louis of Trinidad missing from the competition because of a mix-up with the Trinidad Table Tennis Federation and the absence of the Cubans who have opted to stay away because of security fears over their athletes, the men’s singles competition is wide open.
