Jamaica’s hopes for a medal at the Fast5 World Series at the Christchurch Arena in Christchurch, New Zealand, took a hit on Saturday (Jamaica time) as they were beaten 33-27 by England.

It was back-to-back losses for the Sunshine Girls as they closed the first day with a loss to South Africa after winning their first two games, beating Australia and Malawi.

The teams swapped the lead until the fourth quarter when England took over and went on to win.

Jamaica led by two goals 8-6 after the first quarter but England took over with a big second quarter to lead 15-11 at half-time and both were tied at 21-all going into the final period.

Gezelle Allison who has been one of the stars at the championship, led Jamaica with 12 goals from 10 attempts, Romelda Aiken-George scored her highest one game total with 10 goals from 10 shots and Rhes Dixon scored five from six shots.

Page Reed led England to their third win with 17 goals while Berri Neil scored seven.

Jamaica will complete their first round schedule against hosts New Zealand starting at 9:45pm Jamaican time.

-Paul A Reid