FOURTEEN-year-old (14) Ambika Ramraj of Guyana teamed up with Soren Opti of Suriname to contest the Under-19 International Mixed Doubles and their exploits together were good enough for the bronze medal in a competition that involved 10 countries at the inaugural South American Youth Games, held in Lima, Peru.

Ramraj’ countryman, Narayan Ramdhani teamed up with Florencia Bernatene of Argentina and in the first round, Ramdhani and Bernatene lost in a three sets entertainer to Brazilian Igor De Oliveira and Chilean Andrea Montero, 21-16, 18-1, 14-21.
While Ramraj and Opti of Suriname drew a bye to the quarter-finals, they went on to defeat Jose Guevara of Peru and Maryi Ordonez of Colombia – 23-21, 21-11, 21-18 to earn a semifinal place.
However, they were not successful in getting past Serafin Zayas of Argentina and Lohaynny De Oliveira of Brazil, going down in straight sets, 21-12, 21-14.
Meanwhile, Guyana increased its medal haul by two to 7, inclusive of one silver and six bronze, as sprinter Jason Yaw strolled to his bronze medal in the 400 metres on the penultimate day of action last Saturday.
According to reports, Yaw, looked impressive in the first 100 meters of the race and should have paced himself better over the next 200m before increasing the speed over the final 100.
He however tried too much in the middle of the race and was struggling at the end to the extent that Venezuela’s Kelvis Padrino edged him for the silver just before the line.
Brazilian Anderson Cordeiro crossed the line in 48.14 running out of lane 3 to take the event, Padrino’s time was 48.91s while Yaw achieved 48.98s which was outside his personal best, even as he went into the final with the best time amongst the six athletes, 47.76s.
In an invited comment with Chronicle Sport, Director of Sport within the National Sports Commission Neil Kumar expressed his pleasure at the returns shown by the team, particularly the boxers who were all successful in their medal hunt.
“Think that what the athletes achieved at these Games which was being held for the first time, was extremely well and I am particularly pleased with the boxers, all four of whom will be returning with medals.
“Kudos must be given to the Guyana Boxing Association’s president Steven Ninvalle and General Secretary Sean Richmond, who have been working along closely with the NSC, especially on their ‘Road to Brazil 2016’ programme,” said Kumar.
He reiterated the fact that the GBA is to date, the lone Association to have produced their programme for the ‘Road to Brazil 2016’ programme that the NSC has been calling for, while he also showered praise on the badminton team which competed in the SYG.
Kumar is also of the opinion that once the synthetic athletics track which is presently under construction at Leonora on the West Bank of Demerara is completed, Guyana can be a boost to the athletics fraternity, taking into consideration the results that is being shown at present. Kumar also took the time to applaud the efforts of the Chef-de-Mission Dr. Karen Pilgrim for the excellent work she has done with the team. (Calvin Roberts)