The 20th edition of the Commonwealth Games got underway Wednesday following the opening ceremony at Celtic Park in Glasgow Scotland. St Lucia is among the 71 Commonwealth nations taking part in the Games during 11 days of competition.
St Lucia is represented by a 33 member team competing in track and field, table tennis, boxing, netball, swimming and shooting.
Swimming was the first event St Lucia competed in on opening day, with Joshua Runako Daniel and Jordan Augier plunging into the pool at the Tollcross Swimming Centre. Daniel swam in heat five of the 50 metre (m) butterfly. He recorded a time of 26.04 seconds placing him 27th out of 50 athletes.
Augier swam in heat eight in the 100 m back stroke. While his time of 59.36 seconds set a new national record, it only placed him 21st out 33 swimmers.
Both swimmers are back in the pool today, with Augier competing in the 50 m backstroke and Daniel in the 100 m freestyle.
In other news, St Lucia’s netball team found the going tough in their opening match against Jamaica in the preliminary round of Group A. The Jamaicans totally dominated play coming away with an 88-24 win.
St Lucia was never in the game, losing by quarter scores of 23-3, 39-14, 67-19 and 88-24.
The high points for Jamaica came from goal shoots Jhaniele Reid with 32 goals from 35 attempts and Romelda Aiken who netted 23 goals from 28 attempts. Jamaica also received healthy contributions from their goal attacks, with Thristina Harwood making 17 from 18 attempts, while Shanice Beckford made good on 16 from 18 attempts.
For St Lucia, Captain Shem Maxwell shot 69 percent while scoring 11 of 16 attempts. Indira Laurencin-Roachford had a similar shooting percentage netting nine from 13 attempts. National Under-23 captain Ianna Hippolyte made all her four attempts from the goal shoot position. Too bad she didn’t shoot more often.
St Lucia played their second game against Scotland Friday afternoon. Hopefully the outcome was different this time around.
It was not all doom and gloom for St Lucia’s contingent. In table tennis news, it was mixed results as St Lucia lost and won. They were beaten 0-3 by Australia but were victorious over Zambia 3-1.
In their first encounter against Australia, William Henzelle defeated Omarie Ferdinand 3-0 (11-2, 11-3, 11-5). Kane Townsend also registered a 3-0 win over Adrian Albert with scores of 11-5, 11-6 and 11-1. In mixed doubles Townsend and Hu Heming got past Chris Wells and Albert 3-0 (12-10, 11-9, 11-9).
Now for the good news. St Lucia defeated Zambia 3-1. Wells beat Friday N’gandu 8-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-9. Albert got past Simasiku Kalaluka 11-8, 11-5, 11-3. Albert also went on to win his next match against Noel Kasanda 3-0 (12-10, 11-9, 11-9).
In doubles, Zambia turned the tables on St Lucia when Kasanda and N’ganbdu defeated Ferdinand and Wells.
St Lucia’s table tennis team was back in action Friday afternoon.
Turning our attention to another discipline, two St Lucian boxers were in action on Friday. Ron Bastien entered the ring in the 69 kg welterweight class, against Scott Fitzgerald from England. This midday encounter did not go the distance. Bastien got knocked out in the first minute of the third round.
Later on in the day, British based light heavyweight Ryan Charles went up against Australian Jordan Zamadahli.
Two other St Lucian boxers are in action today. Light welterweight (75 kg) Lyndell “The Russian” Marcellin takes on Richermo Collin from Mauritius at 1:45 pm Eastern Caribbean time.
In the 75 kg middleweight division Arthur “The King” Langellier is also up against a Mauritius opponent-Cedric Oliver. They enter the ring at 2:50 pm Eastern Caribbean time.
