MELBOURNE:
A MAGNIFICENT basketball-style shot by Simone Forbes with just ticks left on the clock carried Jamaica to a nail-biting 54-54 draw with Australia in the Group Two of the netball competition at the XVIII Commonwealth Games yesterday.
Australia led by as many as eight goals with just over five minutes to play, but the Jamaican girls clawed their way back with crucial interceptions and accurate passes as the host team got tired near the end.
The result left Jamaica on top of the group. They are tied on seven points, three wins and a draw, with Australia but have a far superior goal percentage of 208.37 (264 for and 127 against) to Australia's 187.17 (280-150).
Today's final group matches will be crucial. Jamaica will oppose the group's third-place team Samoa while Australia play lowly Singapore. The hosts will be looking to swamp Singapore while hoping that Samoa can hold Jamaica to a low score. Jamaica could also be without Elaine Davis who injured her knee close to the end of the game.
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Captain Oberon Pitterson at goal defence and goalkeeper Kasey Evering made the crucial stoppages in the closing stages while shooter Davis had her best shooting game of the tournament so far, scoring 37 of her 39 attempts. Simone Forbes was also very accurate, scoring 17 from 19 attempts.
Pitterson said they believed in themselves and "took it one goal at a time" near the end.
There was mixed fortune for Jamaica in table tennis. Nigel Webb beat Nana Boateng of Ghana 4-3 in singles pool play but Darryl Strachan and Gavin Hylton were both beaten. Hylton lost 4-0 to India's Subhajit Saha while Strachan went down 4-3 to Malaysia's Shakirin Ibrahim.
Strachan and Webb had a walkover in men's doubles round of 64 but were beaten 3-0 by Australia's David Zalberg and William Henzell in the round of 32.
Karen Anderson and Marlene West were beaten 3-0 by England's Jenny Duncan and Alison Waters in women's squash. In mixed doubles Chris Binnie and West lost 3-0 to the Welsh pair of Gavin Jones and Tegwen Malik.
In badminton Charles Pyne, Nigella Saunders and Alya Lewis all lost 2-0 in the singles while Garron Palmer and Saunders were beaten 2-1 and Pyne and Lewis 2-0 in mixed doubles action.
Pyne lost to Singapore's Kendrick Lee, another Singaporean, Li Li, defeated Saunders while Lewis went down to Canada's Kathleen Rice. Kein Keat Koo and Choong Hann Wong of Malaysia beat Pyne and Lewis while Valerie Loker and Michael Beres of Canada defeated Palmer and Saunders.
On the shooting range, Ronald Brown finished 23rd with 558 and Warren Blake 33rd with a score of 526 in the men's 10m air pistol. The gold medal was won by India's Samaresh Jung with a Games record 584.
