GUYANA’S National female Squash players, Ashley Khalil and Taylor Fernandes, faced Amanda Haywood and Jada Smith-Padmore of Barbados and duly dispatched them 2-1 to book their semi-final spot at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Barranquilla, Colombia. That semi-final will be played today.

The Mixed doubles also began yesterday with Guyana’s Nyron Joseph and Mary Fung-a-fat up against Ricardo Toscano and Winifer Bonilla.

Joseph and Fung-a-fat could not get past the Guatemalan duo and lost that match 2-1.

Guyana’s top seeded men’s player, Sunil Seth opened his CAC bid with a victory over David Gonzalez of Panama.  Seth, however, lost in the next round against #3 seed Arturo Salazar of Mexico by 0-3.  Young and talented Jason-Ray Khalil also started on a good note by defeating Nku Patrick of Trinidad and Tobago but lost his next bid against #2 seed Cesar Salazar of Mexico 0-3.  The Salazar twin brothers, Arturo and Cesar are ranked 54 and 25 in the world.

In the women’s draw, Mary Fung-a-fat beat Charlotte Knaggs of Trinidad and Tobago in her opening match but ran into #1 seed Samantha Teran the following day to whom she lost 0-3.  Taylor Fernandes, just elevated from the junior ranks to senior competition, lost a hard-fought match to Amanda Haywood of Barbados 2-3.

In the Men’s doubles, Guyana’s Sunil Seth and Jason-Ray Khalil won against St Vincent & the Grenadines pair of Jason Doyle and Othneil Bailey by 2-0.  They, however, lost their quarter-final match yesterday against the #2 seeded Arturo and Cesar Salazar at 2-0.

Hockey
The Guyanese Women’s National Hockey team suffered a heartbreaking 2-0 loss to Cuba in their second Pool ‘A’ Game.

Yet again they were left to rue conceding late goals after keeping the Cubans at bay in the first two quarters of the game.

In the third quarter with the clock at 38 minutes, Yunia Milanes swept home from a penalty corner to give Cuba a 1-0 lead; Sunaylis Nikle would double that lead in the 50^th minute to seal the game for Cuba.

The National Men’s team head into action today against Mexico while the women have one remaining game against the Mexican females tomorrow.

Swimming
Guyana’s swimming events opened on Friday (July 20) with Andrew Fowler entering the Men’s 100m Freestyle.  While Andrew did not qualify for the next round, he swam a personal best of 55.01 seconds.

Jamela Sanmoogan was up next on the following morning in the 50m Butterfly and while she suffered the same fate in not moving on, matched Fowler’s feat of swimming a personal best of 29.76 seconds.

Meanwhile, both swimmers took to the pool yesterday with Sanmoogan swimming the 100m Freestyle and Fowler the 50m Butterfly.

Despite Fowler placing third in his heat with a time of 27.01s, he failed to progress to the final; Sanmoogan also lucked out in her event, coming seventh in the heat with a time of 1:03.93s.

The swimmers will enter their final events on July 25 when both Fowler and Sanmoogan swim in the men’s and women’s 50m Freestyle respectively.

Taekwondo

Guyanese Justin Choy lost to Ruddy Mateo of the Dominican Republic in the quarter finals of the men’s under 65kg division by 16 to 9.

Over in the Under 87kg quarterfinal yesterday, Adrian Spelling also suffered a loss (4-16).

Table Tennis

Lady’s individual results:

Trenace Lowe defeated #5 seed Melanie Diaz of Puerto Rico
Trenace Lowe defeated Daniely Rios of Puerto Rico by 3-0
Trenace Lowe defeated Jazel Griffith of Barbados by 3-0

Natalie Cummings lost to #1 seed Adriana Diaz 0-3 and player from Guatemala 1-3
Natalie Cummings lost to Hidalynn Zapata of Guatemala by 1-3

Priscilla Greaves lost to Melanie Diaz of Puerto Rico 0-3

Priscilla Greaves lost to Gremlis Arvelo of Venezuela 0-3

Chelsea Edghill lost to Mabelyn Enriquez of Guatemala 1-3

Chelsea Edghill beat Linda Partap of Trinidad & Tobago  3-0

Men’s individual results
Shemar Britton lost to Brian Afanador of Puerto Rico 0-3

Shemar Britton defeated Jose Urbina of Honduras by 3-0

Nigel Bryan lost to Emil Santos of the Dominican Republic 1-3

Nigel Bryan defeated Oliver Mendoza of El Salvador by 3-1

Christopher Franklyn lost to Andy Pereira of Cuba by 0-3

Christopher Franklyn defeated Oscar Villalta of El Salvador by 3-0

Joel Alleyne lost to Miguel Lara of Mexico by 0-3

Joel Alleyne lost to Jorge Campos of Cuba 0-3

Christopher Franklyn, Shemar Britton, Trenace Lowe, Chelsea Edghill and Nigel Bryan all advanced from the group stage to the knockout rounds which will be played tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Guyanese players failed to advance from the Round of 16 in the Mixed, Ladies and Men’s Doubles competition.

The 23^rd Edition of the CAC Games is being run from July 18- August 4 in Barranquilla, Colombia.