Medal hunt begins at Commonwealth Games

More than 5,000 athletes representing 72 countries, including Jamaica, will bow into action on today’s opening day of competition at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, following last night’s spectacular opening ceremony.

Jamaica will be represented in a number of sports today. They include netball, squash, badminton, swimming, and triathlon.

The Sunshine Girls will play Wales in their opening match at noon Jamaica time. Jamaica’s Girls are drawn in Pool A along with Australia, Scotland, South Africa, Barbados, and Wales. In Pool B are New Zealand, England, Uganda, Malawi, Trinidad and Tobago, and Northern Ireland. The top two teams from each pool will advance to the semi-finals set for August 6.

Jamaica will be hoping to better their performance at this championship, having won the bronze medal four years ago in Gold Coast Australia.

The Sunshine Girls, who are ranked fourth in the world, four places above Wales, are coming off a disappointing fifth at the last World Championships in Liverpool, England, in 2019.

Head coach of the Sunshine Girls, Connie Francis, said that they will be taking every match in the tournament very seriously.

“We are not going to underestimate any team because we know that every team is giving themselves a chance and so are we,” said Francis.

“I am feeling really good because based on what I have seen from the ladies, they are very confident in doing better (than the last Games) and I am just hoping that everything will fall in place as we would like,” Francis said.

The Sunshine Girls have assembled a very strong 12-member squad for the Championships, which includes six players who ply their trade in the Suncorp Netball Super League in Australia.

They are captain Jhaniele Fowler, Shimona Nelson, Jodi-Ann Ward, Shamera Sterling, Latanya Wilson, and Kadie-Ann Dahaney.

The other members of the squad are Shanice Beckford, Adean Thomas, Shadian Hemmings, Nicole Dixon-Rochester, Rebeckah Robinson, and Khadijah Williams.

CHAMPIONSHIPS

Francis pointed out that the Jamaicans have worked very well in their preparations for the championships and they all believe that they can go all the way in this year’s competition.

“The first thing is to make the top four, but I know that the girls are very upbeat about our chances of making it into the final,” she said. “What I can say is that there is a podium finish there for us,and the girls are saying that they are going all the way, and I believe them, and I am backing them to do it,” said the veteran coach.

In squash, Jamaica’s top player, Chris Binnie, will face Ghana’s Evans Ayih in the round of 64.

The badminton team will feature in mixed team competition. The members of the badminton team are Matthew Yee Grant, Michail Williams, Samuel Ricketts, Bradley Evans, Keyon’dr McBean, Joel Angus, Dennis Coke, Zane Reid, Tahlia Richardson, Katherine Wynter, and Briana Bisnott.

In swimming, action begins at at 5:24 a.m. (Jamaica time) with the heats of the men’s 50m butterfly. Sidrell Williams will compete in Heat 5. He will be followed by MacKenzie Headley in the women’s 50m breaststroke, Keanan Dols and Nathaniel Thomas in men’s 100m backstroke, Zaneta Alvaranga and Kelsie Leigh Campbell in women’s 100m butterfly, and Kito Campbell in the men’s 200m breaststroke.

Phillip McCatty will compete in the triathlon.