Latest update February 20th, 2025 12:39 PM
1st South American Youth Games…Ramdhani cops bronze in Badminton; Gaskin & Adams ends with 50m breaststroke PB’s; Edghill & Britton out of TT singles
By Franklin Wilson in Peru
Guyana’s medal tally increased by one to five (5) on day six of the inaugural South American Youth Games (1SAYG) in Lima, Peru yesterday after Narayan Randhani lost his semi-final game in the Badminton Singles competition.
Ramdhani, who defeated Jesus Sanchez of Venezuela in their quarterfinal encounter, could not repeat that performance coming up against the number one ranked player in South America and the Pan American Region.
However, the young Guyanese did not go down easy as he fought with his more experienced and older rival in both sets which he eventually lost 15-21 and 14-21. The 15-year-old Ramdhani, while disappointed he was not able to conquer his rival, was pleased with his performance in the competition.
Hannibal Gaskin in the 50m breast
His father and Coach, Gokarn, said he was also pleased with the performance of young Ramdhani coming up against players who are much more experienced even though they are still pretty young in this age-group competition among fourteen (14) South American countries.
Soren Opti of Suriname, the number two ranked player also lost his semifinal match and like Ramdhani, won a bronze medal which they will be presented with at today’s presentation ceremony following the final.
Both players will now contest the Mixed Pairs doubles where they will team up with colleagues from other countries.
Swimming
Hannibal Gaskin and Omar Adams closed out the swimming competition for Guyana with personal best achievements in their 50m breaststroke events.
Competing in first half of heat 2, Omar Adams whose reaction time after the starting whistle was very impressive, was not able to match the speed of the six other competitors in this event, ending in 7th place in a time of 30.49 seconds.
He was however able to lower his entry time for the event which was 32.09 seconds;
Shemar Britton (right) in action against Juan Lamadrid of Chile
the winning time for this heat was 26.23 seconds.
Gaskin too, while not able to keep up with athletes who are much more exposed at this level, managed to post a better individual time. His entry time was 29.79 and he swam 29.64 even though he was not at his best. The winning time for this heat was 26.23 seconds; there was a tie in this race.
Coach Sean Baksh said he was quite pleased with the overall performances of his swimmers which also included Onika George. He is of the view that with much more pool time and competition at higher levels, Guyanese swimmers would be able to be way more competitive against their peers from other countries.
Table Tennis
Both Chelsea Edghill and Shemar Britton were eliminated from the Singles competition after final preliminary round play yesterday.
Edghill having won one game and lost two on the opening day, Wednesday, had to win her encounter against M. Lorenzotti of Uruguay to advance but that was not to be as the timid Edghill lost the battle in three sets, 11-7 11-5 11-4.
Britton looked well against all his opponents, taking comfortable leads only to allow
Chelsea Edghill (right) in action against M. Lorenzotti of Uruguay
them to rebound and put him away. In the afternoon session, he lost to H. Cifuentes of Argentina in four sets, 9-11 8-11 11-8 7-11.
Britton was leading comfortably in the second set by as much as 6 points but somehow shut down mentally which allowed enough space for Cifuentes to claw his way back. Despite the Guyanese winning the third game 11-8, the Argentine who gave up height advantage to Britton, rebounded to win the fourth at 7 to seal victory.
Britton’s final game against A. Cabrera of Ecuador was no different in terms of him being able to hold his own for periods in the game but losing focus and patience as the matches matured.
HE was comfortable ahead in the first set but lost 10-12; Cabrera then took the next two set at 7 and 9 to wrap up victory.
Coach Linden Johnson noted that both his players are talented, held their own against the opposing players who are also talented but posited that they Guyanese duo somehow were not playing to their full potential, Mentally he said, they were
Omar Adams touches the board in the 50m breatstroke
not 100% which allowed their opponents the room to overcome them.
Edghill and Britton will now seek fortunes in the Mixed Doubles competition today, Edghill will team up with Alejandro Toranzos of Paraguay while Britton will partner Melibeth Velarde of Panama.
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