BARBADOS might have found another medal hopeful.
Sprinter Shakera Reece could be in the hunt for the country’s second piece of hardware at the 16th Pan American Games after qualifying for the women’s 100 metres with the fourth fastest time yesterday in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Running out of lane 8 in the third of three semi-finals, Reece won her heat after posting a personal best time of 11.43 seconds.
The clocking trailed just Brazil’s Rosangela Santos, who advanced with the fastest time of 11.26, along with Barbara Pierce (11.37) of the United States and Colombian Yomara Hinestroza (11.41).
Teammate Ramon Gittens wasn’t so fortunate, though, having missed out on the final of the men’s equivalent by finishing fifth in the second of two semis with a 10.37 clocking.
This was after Gittens finished third in Heat 4 of the opening round, running 10.45 seconds to cross the line behind St Kitts’ former World Champion Kim Collins (10.37) and Jorge Rafael (10.43) of the Dominican Republic.
Collins also went on to break Cuban Leandro Penalver’s meet record of 10.06 after winning Gittens’ semi-final in 10.00.
On the canvas, boxer Cobia Breedy failed to repeat the performance of countryman Anderson Emmanuel when he dropped his lightweight quarter-final bout to hometown boy Angel Gutierrez 27-7 on points.
Breedy never led in this one, trailing the 60-kilo contest 7-2 from the opening round before Gutierrez won the second and third 6-2 and 14-3 respectively.
In men’s hockey, the aquamarine and gold exited pool play without a single victory after slumping to their third successive heavy defeat in a 10-0 loss to Canada.
Barbados didn’t even get off a shot, or earn a penalty corner, as Matthew Guest and Scott Tupper each scored hat-tricks to maintain the North American’s perfect record in Group ‘A’. (JM)
