ANDERSON EMMANUEL may not be the lord of the ring but he’s swiftly becoming Barbados’ hoard of hopes.
The Central American and Caribbean Games bronze medal boxer may very well have to repeat that performance at these Commonwealth Games for the country to finish atop the podium, as more local athletes fell by the wayside yesterday in Delhi.
Sprinters Stephen Headley and Shakera Reece both fell short of making the men’s and women’s 100 metres final respectively, having exited at the semi-final rounds.
After running 10.40 seconds one day earlier, Headley posted a pedestrian 10.67 to come seventh in Heat 2, while Reece finished one spot better with 11.78 in the second of two heats.
Jamaican Lerone Clarke was the eventual champ of the men’s marquee event, following in the footsteps of Asafa Powell four years ago, by relegating Britain’s Mark Lewis-Francis to second with a run of 10.14.
Barbados’ top tennis players Haydn Lewis and Darian King turned in a credible performance to reach the men’s doubles quarter-finals, before eventually succumbing to England’s Ross Hutchins and Ken Skupski 6-3, 7-5.
The third-seeded Brits broke Lewis and King just once in each set – the last break coming with the game tied at five to give the English duo a chance to serve out the match in the second set.
In shooting, the duo of Calvert Herbert and Bernard Chase was eighth in the men’s pairs of the 10 metres air pistol with a total of 1 112.
Talented teenaged cyclist Darren Matthews couldn’t convert his earlier success in the points race to a similar showing in the scratch race, eventually bowing out in the first round when he came 12th in Heat 1.
And Raymond Edwards followed suit in the men’s 50-metre breaststroke, as his 32.36 second posting was just seventh best in Heat 4 of the opening rounds in the pool.
The badminton squad closed out the team competition surrendering their third 5-0 defeat in four days when Scotland swept all five of their matches yesterday.
Barbados didn’t take a single game in those matches either, dropping both singles encounters and all three doubles contests in two straight games. (JM)
