Swimmers, TT players failures continue
By Michael DaSilva
Stabroek News
August 11, 2002
The local two-man swimming team at the VII South American Games in Brazil failed in their medal bid, as the curtains came down on the swimming aspect of the Games yesterday, while the table tennis players were knocked out in the first round of the men's and women's doubles competition.
According to reports from Brazil, light middleweight boxer Rayon O'Neil, also failed to get past the preliminary round as he was stopped in the second by Ecuador's Jinner Guerrero.
Despite winning his 100-metre freestyle swimming heat, Onan Thom failed to advance to the final and had to settle for 8th place overall from a field of 15 entries, while Ronald Ying who placed third in his 100-metre freestyle heat finished 11th overall.
Thom clocked 56:22 seconds for the event while Ying who emulated his performance of the day before by finishing third in his heat, returned 58:42 seconds.
Though they both failed to secure a medal, the two capped off what could essentially be regarded as sound and promising performances. Thom registered two personal best times during the championships. His new personal best time for the 200-metre breaststroke is one minute 10.73 seconds, while the new time for his 100-metre backstroke is one minute 05.30 seconds.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the table tennis players continued to struggle as they entered the phase of doubles competition. Matthew Khan and Christopher Franklin were eliminated in the first round of the men's doubles, while Jody- Ann Blake and Vida Moore also suffered the same fate in their version of the competition.
The pattern continued further into the mixed doubles when Christopher Franklin was paired with Vida Moore and Jonathan Sankar joined Blake. The latter pair however were able to win one game from their Brazilian opponents.
The Brazilians have dominated the table tennis competition by winning both the male and female team competitions. All four teams in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles were Brazilian and they comprise three-fourths of the competition in both the men`s and ladies doubles.
The individual (men's and ladies singles) competition begins today.