Guyanese boxers and track athletes foundered on day three of the XIX Commonwealth Games currently underway in New Delhi, India.
Clevon Rock suffered the same humiliating margin of defeat as his teammate the previous day when the second day of boxing action continued at the Talkatora Stadium yesterday.
Rock suffered the indignity of a second first round defeat in as many major championships when he lost to England’s Thomas Stalker in the men’s 60kg lightweight qualification bout. In a one-sided contest, Stalker delivered an 8-1 whipping on the 2008 junior Commonwealth Games silver medallist.
Rock now joins Devon Boatswain, who was also beaten by Samoa’s Afaese Fata 8-1, on Tuesday. Rock also lost in the first round of the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games that were held in Puerto Rico in July.
The hopes of Guyana to secure the first win of the Games will now rest with the gloves of CAC flyweight bronze medallist Dexter Jordon who will be trading blows with Neo Thamahane of Lesotho.
Over in the pool Guyana’s lone swimmer and CARIFTA champion Jessica Stephenson placed fifth in heat one of the women’s 200m breaststroke. The 15-year-old clocked 2:49.56 in the four lengths of the pool after she had posted her personal best of 37.44s in the 50m breaststroke on Monday.
Another Australian, this time Sarah Katsoulis won the 200m with a time of 2:28.29. Stacy Tadd of England was second with a time of 2:28.75 while Scotland’s Kerry Buchan recorded 2:31.5 for third.
Forde 18th
On the track locally-based long distance runner Cleveland Forde clocked 14:29.46 to place 18th in the 5000m race. He came ahead of five competitors as World 5000m bronze medallist Moses Kipsiro of Uganda struck gold to record a time of time of 13:31.25.
World leaders in long distance races, Kenya had two athletes coming in second and third. Eliud Kipchoge, who was narrowly beaten after a last lap sprint, and Mark Kiptoo copped silver and bronze respectively with times of 13:31.32 and 13:32.58.
US-based Jeremy Bascom placed fourth in heat one of the 100m by posting a time of 10.55s. Mark Lewis-Francis of England won that heat with a time of 10.15s while Bahamian Adrian Griffith was second with 10.19s and Aziz Zakari was third posting 10.37s.
Bascom was subsequently eliminated in the second round of the 100m as he only managed a slow time of 10.63s.
Further track gloom for the Guyanese continued when the other male sprinter Adam Harris was also eliminated in the second round of the 100m with a pedestrian time of 11.88 seconds.
The winning time in Bascom’s heat came from Jamaica’s Lerone Clarke who registered 10.19s while in Harris’ heat another Jamaican, Oshane Bailey, clocked 10.12s for his win.
There was also some hope for the racquet wielders when in the men’s team competition preliminary round Guyana defeated Vanuatu 3-0. The local team of Christopher Franklin and Paul David beat Randy Benjamin and Ham Lulu respectively in straight sets.
