Bicknell dogfight ends in CAC bronze
Published:Wednesday | July 5, 2023 | 2:03 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
AN INTENSE will to win from Jamaica’s Blaise Bicknell ensured he added to Jamaica’s medal tally at the CAC Games in El Salvador, highlighting a strong performance from the country on the competition’s 11th day.
Bicknell bounced back from his men’s singles semifinal defeat to Dominican Republic’s Roberto Cid earlier in the day to defeat Mexican Alan Rubio 6-1, 6-7, 10-8 in their third-place game to win bronze.
After a strong first set by Bicknell, which took only 26 minutes, it was the second set that gave him the most difficulty, battling for nearly two hours with Rubio. Bicknell could not close out the game, giving an opening for Rubio to come back and win the second set in a 7-3 tiebreak.
Rubio forced a third set tiebreak but Bicknell regained his composure and needed only 15 minutes to finish the job and earn the country’s eighth medal of the championships.
It was a Dominican Republic one-two finish as Nick Hardt defeated his compatriot Cid to win gold in the men’s single’s final 6-2, 3-6, 10-7.
Bicknell’s medal contributed to Jamaica’s medal tally, which started to increase on Monday in track and field thanks to a silver medal performance in the women’s hammer throw from Erica Belvit. Belvit registered a best mark of 70.4 metres for second place behind Venezuela’s Rosa Rodriguez.
Yanique Dayle took silver in the women’s 100 metres, clocking 11.39 seconds behind double collegiate sprint champion Julian Alfred of St Lucia.
In Netball, Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls stamped their authority in their second group A game, hammering Cayman Island 116-10.
The Jamaicans were merciless, scoring on average of 29 points per quarter, highlighted by 36 points in the first quarter alone compared to two for the Cayman Islands.
Amanda Pinkney led the way with 100 per cent accuracy, scoring 47 goals in as many attempts with Simone Gordon, scoring 31 goals from her 34 attempts. Theresa Robinson scored 17 goals from her 17 attempts and Shadine Bartley had 17 goals from her 20 attempts.
In Badminton, Jamaica enjoyed victories in the singles events as Samuel Ricketts advanced to the men’s quarterfinals, defeating Dominica Republic’s Yonatan Linarez in straight sets in their round of 16.
Tahlia Richardson progressed to the women’s quarterfinals, defeating Venezuela’s Damaris Ortiz in straight sets in the round of 16 but Katherine Wynter did not advance, losing to Nikte Sotomayor in straight sets.
Zane Reid was defeated by Colombia’s Miguel Quirama in his round-of-32 clash and did not fair better in the mixed doubles round-of -32 when paired with Wynter, losing to the Cuban team of Taymara Oropesa and Roberto Herrera.