KAREN MEAKINS has made it through to the gold medal match of the women’s singles in squash at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Bogota, Colombia.After pushed to three games (12-10, 11-7, 5-11, 11-9) against Colombia’s Silvia Angulo, Meakins returned in the semi-finals to dismiss Catalina Pelaez 11-7, 11-9, 11-9.She will take on top seed Samantha Teran who beat the Caribbean’s No. 1 player Nicolette Fernandes of Guyana 11-5, 11-6, 11-5. Earlier, Barbadian Cheri-Ann Parris fell in the quarter-finals to Pelaez 11-7, 14-11, 11-8.In the men’s doubles, Bryant Cumberbatch and Mark Sealy were beaten in the first round.In Puerto Rico, Nicky Neckles had to settle for fourth place in the men’s 200m backstroke in a time of 2 minutes 03.39 seconds. To add insult to injury, the gold medallist at the 2006 Games also saw his record of 2:00.85 fall to Colombia’s Omar Garcia who clocked 2:00.40.In record timeJamaica’s Alia Atkinson won her second medal in record time, 1:10.25 in the women’s 100m breaststroke.There were mixed results for the Barbados contingent in badminton. On the men’s side, Kevin Wood made it to the second round with a 21-18, 21-19 over Suriname’s Dylan Darmohoetomo only to lose to Puerto Rican Fred Hernandez 21-18, 21-11, while Dakeil Thorpe lost 21-14, 21-11 to Trinidadian Rahul Rampersad.In the round of 32, André Padmore beat Willian Cabrera of the Dominican Republic 21-12, 21-13, but Ryan Holder was at the losing end of a 21-17, 21-15 result against Trinidad’s Kerwin Pantin.Lost matchesOn the women’s side, Sabrina Scott, Tamisha Williams and Mariama Eastmond all lost their matches. Eastmond and Holder are through to the next round in the mixed doubles.The judokas also found the going tough with Aamir Williams, Kyle Maxwell, Levar Arthur and Dario Taylor all losing their matches, but Thorpe and Williams were also eliminated.Despite a personal best lift of 150kg in the clean and jerk, Brandon Inniss had a total weight of 267kg, finishing seventh in the 85kg category.The women’s volleyball team also lost their third straight match, going down 25-19, 25-18, 25-11 to Costa Rica.
