Jamaica’s Under-16 male and Under-19 female water polo teams will be seeking to keep their winning momentum going on today’s second day of the Carifta Water Polo Championships after both made positive starts in day one action at the National Aquatic Centre in Kingston yesterday.

Action in the preliminary round is scheduled to begin at 10:00 am today with Jamaica’s Under-14 mixed team going up against Curacao.

Jamaica’s Under-19 male team will be in action against The Bahamas at 11:10 am, after which the Under-16 male teams are set for battle at 1:30 pm.

The Under-19 female team, who defeated Barbados 16-3 in game one of their best-of-five duel, will meet the opponents in games three and four at 2:40 pm and again at 6:10 pm, respectively.

Yesterday, the Under-16 male team opened their campaign on a creditable note, as they seek to better their bronze medal performance from last year.

They opened with a convincing 22-3 beating of Curacao, followed by a 13-5 beating of Barbados, on the backs of a six-goal tally by Captain Darren-Neil Gordon.

He got support from Jordan Mitchell, who scored twice, while Akil Williams, Bradley Barrett, Alexander Thomson and Hunter Stanbury, all had a goal each. Adam Trevochka scored twice and Anij Brewster netted three times in the losing effort for the visitors.

The Bahamas also made a good start to their campaign with 20-2 and 21-3 victories over Barbados and Curacao, respectively.

Jamaica’s only loss on the day came when the Under-14 mixed team was outplayed 5-18 by The Bahamas.

Meanwhile, in Under-19 male action, Barbados came out 19-12 winners over The Bahamas.

Defending champions Jamaica were scheduled to meet Barbados in the final game of the day, while the Under-19 female team was set to face Barbados in game two at press time yesterday.

Justin Taylor, head coach of the Under-16 team, is backing his charges to get the job done on today’s second day to break into the final where they would battle for the gold medal on tomorrow’s final day.

“I think it was a good start to the tournament for us; we played two tough games and we definitely showed our dominance from game one and we showed the opponents that we know what is going on in terms of our talent and it looks good for our programme,” Taylor told the Jamaica Observer in a post-game interview.

“We are currently ranked as the number one seed after two convincing victories, so we are doing well and our performances are speaking for themselves. So we are definitely looking forward to tomorrow (today) and we just have to hold our own going forward because the aim is to get into the final because we really want this gold medal,” he added.

— Sherdon Cowan