Sunshine Girls look to keep pace with Aussies

Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls are seeking to keep pace with the more fancied Australians in Pool A of the netball competition at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

The Jamaicans lie second in Pool A and face Barbados this morning in a game they are highly fancied to win.

But the Jamaicans, who are trailing Australia on goal difference, want to begin to make up the gap in the hope that they can enter the brackets that begin at the semi-final stage with a favourable match-up.

The second pool in the preliminary round, Pool B, features England and New Zealand, and the assumption is that Jamaica will want to avoid top-ranked New Zealand in the semi-finals. New Zealand are expected to top that group.

The Sunshine Girls have, so far, beaten Wales 72-43 and South Africa, 68-49, while Australia have got the better of Barbados, 95-18, and Scotland, 83-30.

In action from other sports at the Commonwealth Games yesterday, Jamaicans did not have a great time.

In the pool, Keenan Dols, who competed in the 200-metre butterfly, finished a creditable fourth in his heat, clocking two minutes, 1.75 seconds (2:01.75), too slow for him to advance.

In the 50-metre backstroke, Jamaica’s Nathaniel Thomas was also fourth in his heat, clocking 27.60, but failed to advance as well.

Kelsie Leigh Campbell did not start Heat Four of the women’s 50-metre butterfly, and Zaneta Alvaranga finished seventh in a heat where there were six qualifiers, but her 27.89 seconds was not quick enough for her to move into the semi-finals.

Nathaniel Thomas also failed to advance after finishing fifth in his men’s 100-metre freestyle heat in 52.64, while his teammate, Sidrell Williams, was eighth in 53.54.

In squash, Jamaican Chris Binnie’s journey in the men’s singles competition came to an end at the round-of-16 stage after he was beaten by England’s Adrian Waller in straight sets, 11-7, 11-4, 11-4.

Binnie’s teammate, Julian Morrison, is through to the quarter-finals of the plate competition to decide lower placings after beating Ghana’s Evans Ayihm, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6.

Morrison plays against the British Virgin Islands’ Joe Chapman at 8:15 a.m today.

Jamaica’s Rugby Sevens team, The Crocs, ended their Commonwealth experience in 13th place after winning, first their 13-16th place semi-final against Malaysia 28-7, before grinding out a 26-24 win in the 13th-place playoff against Sri Lanka.