Jamaican athletes had a good start on the opening day of the Commonwealth Games being held in the Gold Coast in Australia. Jamaica secured victories in several team and individual events on Thursday morning.
Olympian Alia Atkinson qualified for the final of the women’s 50 metres breast stroke swimming event in convincing fashion after winning her semi-final. She touched the wall in 30.53. Seconds to take the event ahead of, England’s Sarah Vasey and Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa third. Atkinson had earlier won heat one in 30.98 seconds.
The sunshine girls opened their netball competition in Pool A with a crushing 88-30 win over Fiji. Jamaica’s captain Jhaniele Fowler Reid scored 40 goals from 43 attempts on 93 percent shooting accuracy, with Romelda Aiken converting 24 of 32 tries and Rebeca Robinson 15 of 16.
In the meantime, the Jamaican female basketball team opened campaign on a winning note after stopping India 66-57, thanks to Jennifer George who scored a game high 19 points and grabbed 19 rebound, while Captain Sasha Dixon supported with 12 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds. The Jamaicans will next face New Zealand on Saturday morning Jamaica time.
Other victories for Jamaica came in the men’s squash event, where Lewis Walters and Chris Binnie successfully advanced to the round of 16. Walters first shut out Peter Creed of Wales 3-1 to win his round of 64 match, and followed up that with a 3-0 win over Daniel Zamit Lewis of Malta in the round of 32.
Top Caribbean player Chris Binnie took out Saurav Ghosal of India 3-2 in his round of 32 game, and earlier he blanked regional opponent Jason Doyle of St. Vincent and the Grenadines 3-0 in the first round.
In badminton, the Jamaican team lost 5-love to Singapore in the mixed team event.
