SVG Contingent Down and Under in Australia

St.Vincent and the Grenadines’ contingent to the XVIII Commonwealth Games in Australia has found the going tough.

While expectations of gaining medals were not on the agenda, the performances have been below average.

The country’s main hope rested on middle distance athlete Kineke Alexander. {{more}}

Fresh from her record breaking run at the NCAA Indoors, Alexander clocked 52.95 seconds to place fourth in heat two of the Female 400m. Her slower 53.19 seconds in the semi-finals was not enough for her to get to the final as she docked in sixth.

Top field athlete Adonson Shallow managed 46.32m in the Discus and 14.76M in the Shot Putt, failing to surpass his personal bests. Charmant Ollivierre recorded 50.31 seconds in the Male 400m heats and did not make it to the second round. The other representative in the Athletics events Casnel Bushay was set to run in the 200M last Wednesday.

But while Squash player James Bentick did not make the main draw he took the second spot of the consolation round. Bentick’s Squash teammate Collin Alexander failed to win a match.

The Table Tennis players did not fare better. They were ousted in the team championships, and suffered heavy defeats in the singles competition.

In Singles action played last Tuesday, Joseph Carrington drawn in pool 23 was beaten by Thilina Riyaidasa of Sri Lanka 11-3, 11-7, 11-8, 12-10, and also lost to Trinidad and Tobago’s Reeza Burke 11-8,11-8,11-8,11-3. He however was able to eke out wins, three games in total. Khalique Bailey lost to Kazeem Nasiru of Nigeria 11-3, 11-4, 11-2, and 11-2.

Sean Stanley was beaten by Paul Drinkhall of England 11-5, 11-3,11-8,11-2.

Most disappointing though have been the netballers who were obliterated by their opponents. SVG was out-pointed by the world’s number one team New Zealand 98-31 in their opening match.

Both tops seeded South Africa 80-34, and England 78-18 also beat them. SVG lost its fourth straight match going under to Malawi 66-44.

SVG’s last match was set for March 23, versus Fiji.

A play off against the corresponding placing of the next group will determine this country’s final position in the twelve team competition.