CHARLES Pyne is on the verge of securing Jamaica’s first ever Pan American Games men’s singles badminton medal when he took down eighth seed Alex Tjong of Brazil 21-14, 19-21, 21-19 in the quarter-final round of the men’s singles at the Multi-Purpose Gymnasium in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The 30-year-old Pyne was in smashing form in the gripping 71-minute encounter at this 16th staging of the Games.

He delivered six clear, 23 net, and 25 smash winners against the Brazlian, with seven shuttles used in the match.

Pyne won 61 of the 115 rallies played, the longest being 15 seconds or 10 strokes.

Pyne, with a world-ranking at 154th, was scheduled to play Cuban Osleni Guerrero, world-ranked at 202, in the semi-final at 6:30 pm yesterday.

In an interview at the start of the competition, Pyne said: “I see myself winning this tournament. It will be some very tough rounds and fierce competition. My sights are set on gold in the men’s singles.”

In the other men’s singles semi-final top seed Kevin Gordon of Guatemala defeated fourth-seed Daniel Paiola of Brazil 21-14, 21-8.

Alia Atkinson swam 2:18.04 yesterday to finish second in heat three of the women’s 200m individual medley at the Scotiabank Aquatics Centre in Guadalajara.

The 22-year-old was scheduled to compete in the final at 7:18 last night, with only American Julia Smit (2:15.52) and Brazilian Joanna Maranhao (2:19.71) being the other main medal contenders.

Zara Bailey was sixth in heat one in a time of 2:28.38 and was scheduled to take part in the B final of the 200m individual medley last night.

Atkinson came up short for a medal in the women’s 100m breaststroke final Monday night despite lowering her national senior record to 1:09.11.

Not surprisingly Atkinson was fastest to the first 50 metres but gave way in the final stretch as American Ann Chandler clinched gold in a time of 1:07.90, ahead of countrywoman Ashley Wanland, 1:08.55, and Canadian Ashley McGregor, who took the bronze in 1:08.96.

Atkinson was fourth, erasing her previous national mark of 1:09.28 set Monday morning.

In the heavyweight (80+ kg) division of taekwondo, Jamaica’s Kenneth Edwards beat Guyana’s David Rajjab 12-6 to move on to the quarter-final round taking place at the CODE II Sports Complex.

Edwards, however, was stopped 15-3 by Francois Coulombe of Canada in the round of eight.

Meanwhile, Dellan Brown and Namarie Gordon suffered their second consecutive defeat yesterday when Santiago Etchegaray and Pablo Suarez of Argentina won 21-13, 21-9 at the Pan American Beach Volleyball Stadium in Puerto Vallarta.

This follows their 21-11, 21-13 loss to Puerto Ricans Roberto Rodriguez and Christopher Underwood on Monday.