Karen Wilson (right) of Jamaica gets away from two Argentinian players during their Americas Cup game at Mona hockey field yesterday. Argentina won 9-0. - Ian AllenJAMAICA yesterday suffered their biggest defeat of the women's VMBS Americas Cup when they were crushed 9-0 by 2000 Sydney Olympic silver medallist Argentina at the Mona hockey field.
Argentina, who are highly fancied to take the gold medal in the seven-team round-robin tournament, improved their unbeaten run to five straight victories to lead the standings with 15 points.
The United States (USA) and Canada also kept their hopes alive after playing to a 1-1 draw in the final game yesterday and as a result should fight for the final playoff spot for the gold medal match against Argentina ahead of today's final set of matches.
The playoff for the gold medal is scheduled for Sunday and the winners will automatically qualify for the 10th International Hockey Federation (FIH) women's World Cup scheduled for Perth, Australia in 2002.
The next three best placed teams will get another shot to qualify for the Australia World Cup. However, Jamaica lost their way on Tuesday when they went down 2-1 to Uruguay.
A hat-trick of goals from Cecilia Rognoni inside 26 minutes put the Argentines in charge yesterday and Soledad Garcia and Vanina Oneto also added their names to the score sheet to give their team a healthy 5-0 lead at the break.
All conversions from Rognoni came from penalty corners, the first of which was scored in the fourth minute to hand Jamaica an early setback. Five minutes later, Rognoni made the score 2-0 and completed her hat-trick in the 30th minute after which Garcia scored a field goal in the 33rd minute and Oneto converted her first of two strikes in the 35th minute.
Three minutes into the second half Garcia got her double, then Magdalena Alcega (47th), Natalie Doreski (56th) and Maria Hernandez (65th) completed the rout.
TODAY'S GAMES
3:00 p.m. Mexico vs Argentina
5:00 p.m. Jamaica vs Canada
7:00 p.m. USA vs Uruguay
