Jamaican athletes participating in the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, have encountered a slow start to their campaign. The Jamaican delegation, consisting of 90 athletes competing in 16 sporting disciplines, has yet to make a significant impact.
Those clad in the black, green, and gold will contest basketball, rugby, football, cycling, gymnastics, wrestling, boxing, taekwondo, weightlifting, canoeing, diving, swimming, e-sports, tennis, badminton, and track and field athletics.
Nicole Grant serves as the chef de mission, with Novelette Harris, Mark Broomfield, and Gregory Moore as team managers, and Leroy Harrison as the team doctor. The top three athletes in 13 sporting disciplines will secure qualifications for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. However, if those finishing in the top three already have Olympic spots, the qualification will be passed on to the next best-placed athlete.
In women’s football, the Jamaican team suffered a challenging start with a 7-0 defeat to the Mexican women’s soccer squad, who demonstrated their dominance on the pitch at the Elias Figueroa Stadium in Valparaíso, located 120 kilometers west of Santiago.
The match’s early moments saw María Sánchez demonstrate her skill and precision, finding the back of the Jamaican net in the 12th minute, granting Mexico an early advantage. The Aztecs continued to assert their dominance, amassing a 3-0 lead before the close of the first half. Goals from Karla Nieto (35th) and Kiana Palacios (42th) further solidified Mexico’s commanding position.
The second half brought no respite for Jamaica, as Diana Ordoñez extended Mexico’s lead to 4-0 with a goal in the 58th minute. Merely 10 minutes later, Alicia Cervantes added another goal to the tally for El Tri. The goal-scoring spree persisted with María Sánchez securing her second goal in the 75th minute, while Charlyn Corral completed the victory with a goal in the 85th minute.
After the game three players, Destiny Powell, Chris-Ann Chambers, and Shaniel Buckley, departed Chile for Panama to join the senior Reggae Girlz squad which will engage Panama in the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup Qualifier on Wednesday.
In badminton, Jamaican athletes faced mixed results with both wins and losses in singles and doubles competitions. In the men’s singles Round of 32 action on Saturday, Soren Opti of Suriname beat Jamaica’s Bradley Evans 2-0 (21-16, 21-18), and Mexico’s Luiz Garrido defeated Samuel Ricketts 2-0 (21-13, 21-16), also in the Round of 32.
The women’s equivalent resulted in Katherine Wynter defeating Bolivia’s Juanita Siviola 2-0 (21-3, 21-8) in 17 minutes, and Tahlia Richardson blanked Chile’s Vania Diaz 2-0 (21-13, 21-11) in 30 minutes.
The mixed doubles resulted in Evans and Wynter going down 0-2 (21-10, 21-15) in the Round of 32 to Cuba’s Yeily Ortiz and Juan Bancomo in 22 minutes.
In the women’s singles Round of 16 on Sunday, Wynter lost 0-2 (21-5, 21-8) to Canadian Jun Ling Rachel in 19 minutes. Richardson also lost 0-2 (21-14, 21-5) to American Jennie Gai.
The men’s doubles Round of 16 saw Evans and Ricketts suffering a 0-2 loss (21-11, 21-12) to Brazilians Davi Carvalho and Fabricio Rocha.
Wynter and Richardson advanced in women’s doubles after beating the Chilean pair of Camila Asforga and Valerie Santos 2-0 (21-17, 21-12), and in mixed doubles, Richardson and Ricketts lost 0-2 (21-15, 21-11) to Mexico’s Luiz Montoya and Mariam Rodriquez.
In boxing, Jamaican athletes Jaden Eccleston and Sanji Williams faced defeats in their respective weight classes. On Saturday, Eccleston lost 0-5 to Haiti’s Cedrick Belony-Deliepre in bout eight of the men’s 80kg preliminaries Round of 16, while Williams lost in bout seven of the men’s 63.5kg preliminaries Round of 16 to Mexican Miguel Martinez.
The gymnastics performance saw Tyesha Mattis and Sabrina Lyn competing, with mixed results in their respective events. Mattis finished 15th on the uneven bars with 12 points on a 5.3 difficulty and a 6.9 execution. She did not finish in the all-around event and was 33rd on the balance beam, and did not start in the floor exercise.
On Saturday, Sabrina Lyn finished sixth in the women’s 100m breaststroke in Heat One in 1:15.32 (7.13 seconds behind the winner).
Other Jamaican athletes competed in various disciplines, including weightlifting, diving, and taekwondo.
Brandon Sealy lost 1-2 (11-2, 8-8 with two penalty points to the winner, 20-8) to Brazil’s Lucas Ostepiv in bout two of the men’s taekwondo Kyoruhi -80kg Round of 16.
In the men’s 89kg Group A of weightlifting, Omarie Mears finished in 13th place, and Yona Knight-Wisdom also finished in 13th place in the men’s springboard diving on Saturday, with Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson finishing 18th.
Knight-Wisdom was 11th in the final.
Competition at the Pan American Games will continue on Tuesday as Jamaican athletes aim to improve their performances and secure qualifications for the upcoming Olympic Games.
