T&T tennis players Aidan Carter and Emma-Rose Trestrail got off to a successful start on the second day of action in the Commonwealth Youth Games in Nassau, Bahamas, yesterday.
At the National Tennis Center, Carter, 14, made light work of his 18-year-old opponent Xan Owen-Vasilis of Anguilla, beating him 6-2, 6-0 in round one of the Boys’ singles competition. Carter advances to meet India’s Siddhant Banthia, in round two, hoping to reach the quarterfinals.
Trestrail, 18, easily handled her round one challenger Solomon Islands’ Chrisma Au, beating her in two straight sets (6-0, 6-0). Trestrail will play South African Minette Van Vreden in round two action this morning.
Later, Carter will partner with Trestrail as they seek glory in the mixed doubles competition.
Also making a positive start was the T&T beach soccer girls team, who sealed a 5-2 win over Turks and Caicos at the Bahamas Football Association Facilities.
Cyclists Jabari Whiteman and Tyler Cole raced in the boys Time Trial competition on the Streets of New Providence but did not get success. Whiteman clocked 12 minutes and 33 seconds to place ninth while Cole ended in 13th spot in a time of 12.46. Winning gold was Matthew Oliveira of Bermuda in 12.06, silver went to Scotland’s Dylan Hughes 12.18 and Australian Sebastian Berwick got bronze in 12.21.
At the Queen Elizabeth Sports Center, located directly northwest of the National Tennis Center, T&T boys’ team of Devaughn Martin and Daynte Stewart lost both its preliminary round matches and placed last in Pool D in beach volleyball.
The locals first encountered Ghana duo Kelvin Carboo and Eric Tsatsu and went under 2-0 (21-11, 21-17) in the morning session. Later against Papua New Ginea’s Damien Aisi and Tonnie Gima, the national pair gave an improved showing pulling back a set 21-13 in the second after losing the opening set, 13-21, but was unable to maintain it in the third set and fell 9-15 to fold for a 2-1 defeat.
The local girls’ team of Tsyan Selvon and Ebony Williams had mixed results, losing 2-0 (21-13, 21-18) to the unbeaten New Zealand team of Ella Margaret Akkerman and Jasmine Taho Pepi-Milton but rebounded to comfortably defeat St Lucia pair Tiah Arnold and Tenayestlgni, 2-0 (21-0, 21-0), to place third in the four-team group.
New Zealand topped Pool C while Scotland and Australia won their respective pools.
In today’s quarterfinals, T&T tackles the tough Australians while Rwanda meets Vanuatu, New Zealand plays England and Scotland takes on Bahamas.
At the Betty Kelly-Kenning National Swim Complex, Jeron Thompson did not progress to the finals in either of the races he swam in. Thompson placed fifth in the boys 50m butterfly, touching the wall in 25.69 seconds in heat five and later in the 200m breaststroke, he placed seventh in 2:27.32.
Today, he will dive back into action in the 50m breaststroke, from 11 am.
At the old Thomas A Robinson Stadium, T&T’s girls rugby sevens team suffered defeats in its three opening matches. The local players went under to Fiji, 29-0 in their first encounter, then fell to a huge 62-0 defeat, trailing 29-0 at the half against Australia, and then later lost against Wales, 53-0.