Guyana suffer mixed fortunes on opening day
HOST country Guyana endured mixed fortunes on the opening day of the 11th International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) Pan American Karate championships at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) yesterday.
To add insult to injury, they lost the services of Ashley Low who was a certainty for a medal in the Girls’ 16-17 kumite category. She fell and hit her head while she was about to deliver a kick during her match-up against Antigua and Barbuda’s Tiffani Li.
Last year’s medal winner Eric Hing did not advance past the preliminary round of the Boys’ 16-17 kumite event, as he lost out to Trinidad and Tobago’s (T&T) Marc Mollenthiel in the second round.
But while Cheeks and Hing failed to advance, it was the younger brigade, led by Leah Sherriff, Tashana Wong, Alexander Cheeks and Aliya Wong who flew the Golden Arrowhead with pride in the CASH yesterday.
In the Girls’ 10-11 kumite event (one step sparring), Sherriff and Tashana Wong will be battling against Barbados’ Ladisha Boyce and Angelay Deodat respectively, while Boyce, Sherriff and Deodat will battle for supremacy in the kata category of the same division.
In the Boys’ 10-11 kumite (individual sparring), Guyana’s Joshua Broomes and Alexander Cheeks will be going up against Barbados’ Joseph Isaac and Nicholas Anderson from Jamaica, while the same quartet will do battle in the kata category of the same age group.
Aliya Wong and Theresa Sampat of Guyana will try to turn back the advances of K. Sherri-Massiah and Tabu Lall-Kissoon both of Barbados in the Girls’ 8-9 kumite, while Wong, Lall-Kissoon, Sherri-Massiah and Ayesha Broomes will battle it out in the kata category.
Sisters Tiffani Li and Sarah Li of Antigua will go head-to-head with Canada’s Leah Villenueva in the Girls’ 16-17 kumite, while Sarah Li, Villenueva, Shekeema Edwards of Antigua and Kristen Cardozo of T&T will battle for the kata crown.
In the Boys’ 16-17 age groups, Guyana’s Samuel Ming will look to ease the pain caused by Hing’s elimination, when he goes up against Mollenthiel (T&T), Kyle Fenty and Stuart Holder, both from Barbados, in both the kumite and kata categories.
Three Guyanese, namely Tariq Dundas, Nathan Hackett and Mark Wong will go head-to-head with Antigua’s Jonathan Douglas in the Boys’ 8-9 individual kata and kumite categories respectively.
Kemo Cornelius and Mikhail Broomes of Guyana will also be looking to fly the Golden Arrowhead high in the presence of His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo today, when they go up against Payan Rastagar (USA) and Kristopher Coppin (Bar) in the Boys’ 12-13 kata and kumite competition.
The same will occur in the Girls’ 12-13 age group, where Barbados’ Tenisha Low will be wishing she was back home in the Island of the Flying Fish, as she has four Guyanese in Amber Low, Tiffany Lowe, Christy Dey and Sophia McKoy to contend with in both the kata and kumite displays.
In the Boys’ 14-15 kata and kumite, Shane Rahaman will be looking for all the support he can garner from his fellow Guyanese teammates, when he goes up against Dominic Anderson, Jesse Gonsalves and Joseph Nivet.
Tashana Lowe, Simonica Fanfair, Kristina Cheeks, Dominique Viene and Alexa Villenueva will do battle in the Girls’ 14-15 age group kata and kumite, while in the Men’s individual kata, Matt Moody, Justin Nepo, Ronald Pedreneez, Rory Ramsay, Cameron King, Zachary Alexander, Ken Woon-A-Tai and Jose Banari will compete for top honours.
In the Women’s individual kata, Kumichi Nguyen, Kristin Hoffman, Chelsea Smith, Nicola Lambrie, Christina Valdes, Crystal Schutlz, Tanya Hendricks and Yvonne Clarabel will battle for top honours.
Dwain Vaughns, Marchelo Boldrini, Nilo Quigaman, Chris Troah, Tony Cuffie, T. Kurdu and Nigel Forde will meet in the senior Men’s individual kata event, while in the senior Women’s individual kumite, Schutlz, Lambie, Smith, Hoffman, Angelo Dixon, Natalie Hypolite, Nathalie Gibson and Janelle Linton will have a go for top honours.
The top eight in the Men’s individual kumite are Brendon McGowan, Rory Ramsay, Michael Mercer, Christian Ledue, Justin Nepo, Ronald Pedreanez, Marco Coulombe and Cameron King who will meet to decide who the top karateka is.
Having defeated T&T, Canada and Guyana respectively, Barbados and the USA will meet in the final of the men’s team kumite competition, while Guyana and Canada will battle for third and fourth places respectively.
In the women’s team kumite, Barbados and Canada will clash in the final, after they defeated the USA and T&T in their preliminary round matches, leaving them to battle for third place, while Guyana and T&T will battle for supremacy in the Men’s team kata.
Today’s action, in which all the finals will be contested in all the various categories, is scheduled to get under way at 09:00 h, and there will be also a display by the karatekas, as well as the official opening ceremony with President Jagdeo expected to be in attendance.