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Fernandes silver; Allicock, Amsterdam bronze highlight Guyana at S/A Games
By Rawle Toney
Kaieteur News – The 13th edition of the South American Games will end today, and team Guyana will leave Asunción, Paraguay, with three medals – one silver and two bronze.
Twenty-two athletes, drawn from the disciplines of badminton, table tennis, squash and boxing, represented the Land of Many Waters at the games, which started in 1978.
Team Guyana’s performance was capped by another stunning display of brilliance by the country’s squash hero, Nicolette Fernandes, who, 12 years after winning the country’s second gold medal in the history of the South American Games, claimed silver in the women’s singles event.
Guyana’s medallists at the South American Games – Desmond Amsterdam (boxing, bronze), Nicolette Fernandes (squash, silver) and Keevin Allicock (boxing, bronze).
Fernandes, now 39, is Guyana’s most decorated player in the 19th-century sport, and though stepping away from playing professionally, she has shown that there’s enough left in the tank to continue shining for her country.
The 2009 Women’s International Squash Players Association (WISP) Tour runner-up and this year’s World Master’s Championship gold medallist rolled back the years and seemed like Nicolette of the old when she faced Colombia’s Laura Perez in Wednesday’s singles finals.
Fernandes raced away to a 2 – 0 lead (11-6, 11-8). However, Perez, 25, currently ranked in the top 100 in the world, bounced back to even the match 2 – 2, winning her games 7-11, 7-11.
In 2010, Fernandes won her first and Guyana’s only gold medal in Squash at the South American games, joining distance athlete Cleveland Forde (5000m) to win Gold for Guyana at the prestigious continental games.
Nicolette Fernandes, historic achievement in squash was the icing on the cake for team Guyana at the games in Paraguay.
With Desmond Amsterdam and Keevin Allicock bowing out at the semi-finals of their respective weight class, the two boxers earned bronze.
In the case of Allicock, it was his second bronze at the South American Games following his 2018 semi-finals exit. Allicock also reached the quarter-finals at the Commonwealth Games.
Amsterdam, a Sergeant in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) is having a good year in the sport, having won bronze at the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC) Elite Championships, and also reaching the quarter-finals at the Commonwealth Games.
At the 2018 South American Games, Guyana finished with five medals, thanks to silver from Leslain Baird (Javelin), Winston George (400m bronze) and Jenea McCammon (100m hurdles bronze), along with bronze from boxers Allicock and Colin Lewis.
Guyana did not register a track and field team at the 2022 games.
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