Jamaica’s swim sensation Alia Atkinson notched her fifth medal at the ongoing Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Colombia last evening.

Atkinson swam 25.47 seconds for third in the 50m freestyle behind Colombia’s Hurtado Arcila in 25.11 seconds, and Liliana Ibanez of Mexico who timed 25.15 seconds.

It was the fifth medal for Atkinson, who had already won three gold medals and one bronze.

“My goal coming into this (Games) was to get on the podium in all the events. I fell short in the 100 free, but I think that just means that for the hundreds I’m not there yet; for the 50s I have my sprints, I just need to do more training for the worlds coming up to finish off that hundred strong,” she said.

She believes she is on course for the worlds.

“I believe so, it was a lot better than Commonwealth (Games), because of that it looks like I’m getting better as the year prolongs, so yeah, it’s looking good.”

She added: “…breaststroke is my favourite event, then comes fly (butterfly) and freestyle, so considering it’s my third favourite, it is good to see that I still have the range in the sport of swimming and I still can be competitive in all the events.”

Meanwhile, in the women’s 50m B final, Jamaica’s Emily MacDonald finished fifth in 26.48 seconds.

In men’s hockey, Trinidad and Tobago blanked Jamaica 3-0 with goals from Akim Toussaint in the 25th and 55th minutes, and Teague Marcana in the 47th minute.

It was the third consecutive loss for the Jamaicans, whose captain Kamar Mitchell lamented the problems afflicting his team since their arrival in Colombia.

“We are still trying to adjust to the turf and we made some simple defensive errors. Attacking-wise we did not score, so in the end we actually paid for that,” he said.

He added: “We’ve been faced with a lot of injuries, a lot of the players have been out, so most of the players can’t play for more than five minutes and the games last for 60 minutes, so we are suffering from that.”

The Jamaicans have thus crashed out of medal contention, but the captain of the day noted that the players will continue to keep their heads up as they target a best-ever placing.

“We all are disappointed; however, we are still trying to make our best finish ever; we are still trying to place fifth and we will do what we have to do from there.

“We have to go back to the drawing board, we will have to think things over, we will have to change game plan, game setting,” he ended.

Jamaica’s squash team defeated the Cayman Islands 3-0 in quarter-final action to advance to the semi-finals where they are assured of at least a bronze medal.

Chris Binnie defeated Cameron Stafford 11-4, 11-4, 11-5; Bruce Borrowes stopped Julian Jervis 3-2, 11-5, 11-9, 0-11, 5-11, 12-10, while Lewis Walters blanked Jacob Kelly 2-0, 11-6, 19-17.