Birmingham, England – Ebony Drysdale-Daley handed Jamaica its first medal at the 22nd Commonwealth Games here after placing second in the women’s -70kg judo competition at Coventry Arena on Tuesday evening.
The British-born 27-year-old lost 0-10 to the more aggressive Australian Aoife Coughlan in the final which lasted six minutes and 34 seconds.
Drysdale-Daley, who created history by becoming the first Jamaican woman to qualify for judo at the Tokyo Olympic Games last year, suffered three shido penalties.
On her way to the final, she defeated Rachael Hawkes of Northern Ireland 10-0 in the quarter-final in three minutes and one second, before inflicting similar pain on England’s Kelly Petersen-Pollard in the semi-final A/B in three minutes and 41 seconds, despite having suffered two shido penalties.
Jamaica went agonizingly close to gaining another medal in judo when Lauren Semple lost 0-10 to Katharina Haeckler of Australia in the women’s -63kg semi-final in two minutes and seven seconds.
Semple had lost to Audrey Biock of Cameroon 0-10 in the quarter-final before beating Bahamian Cynthia Rahming 10-0 in the repechage A/B.
On Wednesday, Steven Moore will oppose Dominic Dugasse of Seychelles in men’s +100kg elimination round of 16 at 10:00 am (5:00 am EST).
Meanwhile, the Sunshine Girls made it four wins from as many matches when they easily brushed aside Scotland 78-34 and will now take a day off before their top-of-the-table Pool A clash with Australia on Thursday.
The Connie Francis-coached team led at the end of the first quarter, 40-18 at the half-time break and 61-23 heading into the last quarter.
Captain and goal shoot Jhaniele Fowler led the scoring with a perfect 37 goals in 30 minutes, and she was assisted by Shimona Nelson with 33 goals from 35 tries, also in 30 minutes of action.
On the defensive end, Shamera Sterling played only 45 minutes but made five interceptions.
At the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, Nathaniel Thomas won heat six of the men’s 50m freestyle in 23.89 seconds, but that was only good enough for 27th place overall, while his teammate Sidrell Williams clocked 23.954 seconds to finish seventh in heat eight and 28th overall in the field of 72 contestants.
On Wednesday at 10:40 am (5:40 am EST), Keanan Dols will contest heat four of the men’s 200m individual medley as team Jamaica look to close out action at this 22nd Commonwealth Games here.
In badminton action at the NEC Hall Five, Joel Angus is slated to face Alexandre Bongout of Mauritius in men’s singles round of 64 play at 10:30 am (5:30 am EST), while Samuel Ricketts and Tahlia Richardson will take on Duane March and Laura Harada of Falkland Islands in mixed doubles round of 64 on court two at 5:00 pm (noon EST).
Katherine Wynter will face Khan Insyirah of Singapore in women’s singles round of 64 at 5:30 pm (12:30 pm EST), while Ricketts opposes Australian Jacob Schueler in men’s singles round of 64 play at 6:30pm (1:30 pm EST).
And in another mixed doubles round of 64 game, Angus and Wynter face off with Maarten King and Tamisha Williams of Barbados at 7:00 pm (2:00pm EST).
At Hall Four at NEC, Daniel Hylton was knocked out after 20 seconds inside round one by Scotland’s Tyler Jolly in the men’s over 65kg – 67kg (welterweight) bout.
Team Jamaica will return to the ring on Wednesday night when Jerone Ennis takes on Welshman Taylor Bevan in the men’s over 75kg – 80kg (light heavyweight) bout at 9:45 (4:45 pm EST). Ennis had won his opening bout 3-2 over Australian Billy McAllister to advance to Wednesday’s quarter-final four.
In squash at the University of Birmingham Hockey and Squash Centre, Zambia’s Kundanji Kalengo defeated Jamaica’s Julian Morrison 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-9) in the plate semi-final.
And in lawn bowls men’s singles, Section C, round one, Jamaica’s Robert Simpson was no match for Malaysia’s Fairul ABD Muin, who won 21-4.
Simpson will continue Section C play with rounds two and three on Wednesday against Carel Olivier of Namibia and England’s Jamie Walker. The games are carded for 8:30am and 11:30am (3:30 am and 6:30 am EST, respectively).
