A hard day for Team Guyana at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Vera Cruz, Mexico on Tuesday last, as Olympian Winston George was forced to pull out of the heats of the 200m, as the scheduled times for that and his specialty – 400m, were minutes apart.When he did step onto the track at the Heriberto Jara Athletic Stadium for the 400m; he would find it hard to make the podium, crossing the line in fifth position with a time of 46.33 seconds in an event which saw the first four athletes all stopping the clock under 46 seconds.
Cuba’s Raidel Acea grabbed gold in a time of 45.36 seconds ahead of his countryman Yoandys Lescay (45.56) and Venezuela’s Albert Bravo in fourth (45.82).
Stephan James featured in the 200m for Guyana and was second fastest in heat 3 with a time of 21:29 seconds, securing qualification to the semifinals, but lost out there when he finished fifth, clocking 21.25secs.
George, James and sprinters Adam Harris and Jeremy Bascom will now try for a team medal in the 4x100m relay on Friday at 2:40pm (Guyana time), for which Jamaica are the defending champions, having won the event in 2012 with a time of 36.84 seconds
On the squash court, Guyana’s Ashley Khalil and Ashley DeGroot’s bid for a place in the Women’s Doubles final was halted by Colombia’s Laura Tovar and Karol Gonzalez in two sets who won the match in straight sets 11-2, 11-1, leaving the Guyanese to look to the Men and Women’s team events that will be played today.
Over at the Omega Complex, where Badminton is played – both Jonathan Mangra and Narayan Ramdhani lost their Round of 32 matches.
Mangra fell to Andre Padmore of Barbados 7-21, 13-21, while Ramdhani was stopped by Cuba’s Leodannia Martinez 15-21, 20-22, but the Guyanese pair was scheduled to play in the Men’s Doubles last evening.

(By Leeron Brumell)