Commonwealth Games 2010… Local ruggers face stern test

Guyana’s Rugby Sevens team will have a packed day of competition today against some of the sport’s superpowers in the XIX Commonwealth Games at the Delhi University in India.

The five-time North American Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) and 2010 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) champions, Guyana will first take on Scotland in Pool A but the local ruggers will face their sternest test from former champions, New Zealand. Guyana’s third match of the day will be played against Canada. Prior to today’s games, the national rugby Sevens team had an intensive training schedule with a few warm-up games.

The team played their first warm-up match against the current International Rugby Board (IRB), Sevens World Series champions, Samoa on Thursday. Samoa is currently one of the best Sevens team in the world after they emerged as the top team in last February’s IRB world Sevens series in Las Vegas, in which the national Sevens team also participated.

Sevens team: Claudius Butts (Captain) Walter George, Richard Staglon, Dwayne Schroeder, Albert La Rose, Theodore Henry, Kevin Mc Kenzie, Dane Parks, Ronald Mayers, Christopher Singh, Dominic Lespierre and Avery Corbin.

Cycling

Meantime, in the 168km road race, Guyana’s Geron Williams placed 31st out of a field of 60 cyclists, eight of whom did not complete the race. Williams clocked 3:57:10, seven minutes, 22 seconds off the winner, Allan Davis of Australia, who clocked 3:49:48 at an average speed of 43.864.
New Zealand’s Hayden Roulston was second while David Millar of Scotland copped the bronze medal.

In rifle shooting Ransford Goodluck and Mahendra Persaud will be competing in the singles fullbore open stage 1-600 event.
On Saturday, Persaud and Goodluck placed 13th along with Kenya in the 300 yards event. Persaud shot 48 points with 5 V-bulls, while Goodluck shot a similar amount of points but with 3 V-bulls. Trinidad and Tobago is the highest placed Caribbean team at ninth with Justin Lall (50-6) and veteran Norris Gomez (48-3) shooting well.