– Stephenson records personal best in 50m breaststroke
Guyana’s lone swimmer at the Common-wealth Games, Jessica Stephenson recorded her personal best time yesterday when she contested in the heat three qualification of the women’s 50m breaststroke at the nineteenth Common-wealth Games, currently underway in New Delhi, India.
Swimming in lane one, 15-year-old Stevenson finished seventh among the eight swimmers with a time of 35.03 seconds.
Stephenson finished 4.46 seconds behind the winner Jane Pickett from Australia, but managed to finish ahead of her opponent in the eighth lane, Uganda’s Jarnila Nsibambi, who occupied the final position with 38.93 seconds.
Finishing split seconds behind the winner to take the second position was England’s Emma Haywood with a time of 31.30 seconds followed by Annamay Pierse of Canada, who was third in 31.71 seconds.
Placing seventh in the qualification race means Stephenson will not proceed to the next round of the 50m breaststroke, but she will be competing in the qualification heats of the 200m and 100m breaststroke tomorrow and Thursday.
Meanwhile, Nicolette Fernandes advanced to the round of 32 in the women’s singles squash competition after performing impressively in the first round, but lost in the women’s singles round of 32 after suffering a straight set defeat (3-0) to Australia’s Donna Urquhart.
Fernandes rallied and leveled the scores on 10 before eventually losing 12-10 in the first set, which was followed by an 11-9 and 11-7 loss in the second and third sets respectively.
In the first round of the competition, Fernandes defeated Kenya’s Khaaliqa Nimji 3-0 in straight sets, which ended 11-0, 11-3 and 11-1.
Guyana’s other squash representative, Ashley Khalil was not fortunate to move on to the round of 32 as she lost to Scotland’s Frania Gullen-Buchert 3-0 (11-2, 11-3 and 11-6).
Fernandes and Khalil will join forces in the doubles competition to be held on October 13.
The national cycling team, which comprises Geron Williams, Alonzo Greaves and Marlon Williams, will be in action today, along with rifle shooters Ransford Goodluck and Mahendra Persaud.
