Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
MELBOURNE, Australia:
JAMAICA'S SUNSHINE Girlz began their bid for top honours in netball with an emphatic 67-22 victory over Singapore on the second day of competition at the XVIII Commonwelath Games in Melbourne, Australia.
Top shooter Elaine Davis had 25 goals from 32 attempts to lead the way for Jamaica, who outscored Singapore, 19-7, 15-8, 18-5 and 15-2 in each of the four quarters.
Other leading scorers for the Sunshine Girlz were Latoya Thomas with 23 from 25 attempts, Simone Forbes 11 from 14 and Jodi Ann Ffrench, eight from 10.
Playing the opening match of the netball tournament Jamaica, the 2002 bronze medallists, were a bit erractic in their passing and shooting but were still too good for Singapore.
Jamaica's main netball rivals also won well. Hosts Australia demolished Wales 78-22, New Zealand, the gold medal favourites, beat St. Vincent and the Grenadines 98-31, while England defeated Malawi 63-47.
New Zealand's goal shooter Irene Van Dyk was particularly impressive, scoring 48 of 49 attempts to lead her country to victory.
SWIMMING
Jamaica's trio of swimmers did not get past the heats in their events yesterday.
Brad Hamilton swam a personal best 26.60 seconds in the men's 50m butterfly to place fourth in his heat and 27th of 43 overall. His heat was won by Ian Powell of Guernsey in 25.51.
Later Hamilton was 24th of 33 overall in the men's 200m freestyle. He placed eighth in his heat in 1:59.54. The heat went to Canada's Richard Say in 1:48.77. The fastest qualifying time was 1:48.76 by England's Ross Davenport.
The 16-year-old Hamilton is learning from the experience here.
"I have been learning how best to turn and dive. The experience here has been very good," Hamilton said after his swim in the 200m freestyle. He will compete in the 100m freestyle on Saturday (last night Jamaica time), 100m butterfly on Sunday (tonight Jamaica time) and the 50m freestyle on Monday (Sunday night Jamaica time).
Alia Atkinson and Tamara Swaby were 24th and 26th overall respectively in the women's 100m freestyle. Swaby clocked 1:00.95 for third in heat one, while Atkinson was eighth in heat five in 1:00.13. Her heat was won in a Games record 54.52 by Australia's Jodie Henry.
BADMINTON
The island's badminton players were whipped by New Zealand as they suffered their second 5-0 loss in the mixed team event. Charles Pyne and Alya Lewis were first beaten 21-9, 21-6 by Daniel Shirley and Sara Runesten, Garron Palmer lost to Geoffrey Bellingham 21-8, 21-13, Nigella Saunders went down 21-13, 21-10 to Rebecca Bellingham, Pyne and Palmer were beaten 21-11, 21-5 by Shirley and Craig Cooper while in the final match Saunders and Lewis lost 21-8, 21-8 to Runesten and Nikole Gordon.
CYCLING
In cycling Ricardo Lynch did fairly well to reach the second round of the men's keirin but the gold medal went to Australia's Ryan Bayley, Canada's Travis Smith took silver and Scotland's Ross Edgar, bronze.
Iona Wynter's two points placed her ninth in the women's points race won by Australia's Katherin Bates. Oneil Samuels had a minus 20 in the men's event for 12th overall.
TABLE TENNIS
Jamaica's table tennis team followed up a successful Thursday with disappointing results yesterday. They first beat Trinidad 3-1 but then lost to Canada 3-0 before they were edged 3-2 by regional rivals Barbados. They will next play Singapore, the top seeded team in Pool A of the team tournament.
Jamaica are now in fourth spot and virtually out of contention for a quarter-final spot. The top two teams in each pool advance to the quarter-finals.
