Guyana’s 16-athlete outfit finished with a silver medal and two bronze medals at the X11 edition of the South American Games which concludes tonight in Paraguay.
Thanks to the heroics of squash queen Nicolette Fernandes and boxing standouts, Keevin Allicock and Desmond Amsterdam, the local contingent will return home with hardware.
On Wednesday, Fernandes had to settle for the silver after losing a grueling five-set thriller in the women’s singles final after jumping out to an early two-set lead against Colombia’s Laura Perez.
The 39-year-old, however, faded down the stretch as her opponent, 14 years her junior prevailed 6-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7, 13-11.
Fernandes had struck gold in the women’s singles at the quadrennial fixture in Medellin, Colombia, 12 years ago and was looking to mirror that achievement.
In the ring on Sunday, Amsterdam unanimously lost his semifinal 80kg bout versus Argentina’s Benjamin Grimaux 0-5 on the scorecards.
While Amsterdam lost in the ring, Allicock disappointingly forfeited his 57kg bout on the scales without throwing a punch.
Allicock, who snared a bronze medal by virtue of reaching the semis, weighed in at 57.1kg and failed to make weight.
His scheduled opponent, Ecuador’s Jean Pachito, then progressed to the final after winning via Walk Over (WO).
At the two-week, multi-sport event staged in Asunción, Team Guyana was represented in the disciplines of badminton, boxing, squash and table tennis.
During the last edition of the quadrennial event in Bolivia, Team Guyana ended with five medals, a silver medal and four bronze medals.
Three of those medals were earned by Track and Field athletes, Leslain Baird (silver), Jenea McCammon, and Winston George while the others were snared by pugilists, Allicock and Colin Lewis.
This edition, Guyana was not represented in Track and Field.
