Jamaica hope for better results on day 3 of Commonwealth Games
JAMAICAN athletes will be hoping for better results on the third day of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, when the netball and men’s 3×3 basketball teams make their first appearance.
The scaled-down games started on Thursday, with Jamaica so far participating in swimming, women’s 3×3 basketball and lawn bowls, resulting in mixed results.
On Saturday, Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls, who were silver medal winners four years ago and are again considered among the main contenders, will hope to kick-start their journey back to the grand finale when they take on Caribbean neighbours Trinidad and Tobago in Pool B at Hydro Arena.
Trinidad and Tobago are ranked 11th in the world and will be hoping to restrict the high-flying Jamaicans.
Jamaica will again be in action on Sunday when they face New Zealand before opposing Uganda on Monday. They will break on Tuesday before completing pool play on Wednesday and Thursday.
The men’s 3×3 basketball team faces England in their opening game and will also go up against Singapore and Fiji later in the day.
The Jamaica women’s 3×3 basketball team won one of their three games on Friday, defeating Cayman Islands 21-5 in Pool A, with Teneisia Brown leading the way with eight points.
Brown also scored six points in an overtime 17-18 loss to Uganda, while the Jamaicans also lost 13-21 to Australia.
In the pool at Swimming-Tollcross Centre on Friday, Jessica Calderbank and Kito Campbell qualified for the semi-finals in the women’s 50m butterfly and men’s 100m breaststroke, respectively.
Calderbank was fifth in her first-round heat in 27.17 seconds before placing sixth in her semi-final race in 26.88, but shefailed to advance.
Sabrina Lyn won her first-round heat in 27.75 while failing to get into the semis.
Campbell was fifth in his first-round heat in 1:02.31, and lowered that to 1:02.02 in the semi-final in which he was eighth.
On Saturday Lyn is to line up in the women’s 100m breaststroke while the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay team is also expected to compete.
In lawn bowls, Jamaica’s Robert Simpson is down to compete in the men’s singles section after losing his two previous matches by 0-2 margins.
On Thursday, Simpson lost to Jason Banks of Scotland and on Friday went down to Prasad Rajnesh of Fiji.
— Paul A Reid
