Jamaica clinch silver in CAC badminton

MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico (CMC):

Jamaica gave an impressive showing but were not good enough for Guatemala, as they went down 3-1 in the men's badminton final at the Central American and Caribbean Games late Monday night.

After playing outstandingly to reach the gold medal game, they never recovered from losing the two opening singles contests at the Coliseo Raymond Dalmau and were forced to settle for silver.

Charles Pyne went down 9-21, 16-21 to Kevin Cordon and Gareth Henry temporarily raised Jamaica's hopes when he levelled the clash with a come-from-behind 20-22, 21-16, 21-19 triumph over Rodolfo Ramirez.

But Garron Palmer was crushed 21-12, 21-9 by Pedro Yang in the third singles match-up, before Gareth Henry and Garron Palmer went down to Kevin Cordon and Rodolfo Ramirez 12-21, 13-21 in the doubles encounter.

FINE START

Earlier on Monday, Jamaica clinched a spot in the final after they dismissed Trinidad and Tobago in the semi-finals.

The northern Caribbean side took an early 2-0 lead in the team contest before cruising to an uncomplicated 3-1 victory at the Coliseo Raymond Dalmau.

Jamaica got off to a fine start when Pyne beat Kerwin Pantin 21-14, 23-21 in the opening contest before Palmer extended the lead when he survived a minor blip before overcoming Anil Seepaul 21-17, 15-21, 21-10.

Rahul Rampersad hauled T&T back in the contest when he crushed Kashif Bernard 21-15, 21-16 but Palmer and Henry put the issue to rest with a 21-18, 21-14 whipping of Pantin and Rampersad in the doubles contest.

Jamaica had earlier trounced Suriname 4-1 in the preliminaries to continue their fine run after they beat Mexico 4-1 and turned back the Dominican Republic 3-2 on the opening day on Sunday.

T&T reached the semi-finals after beating Puerto Rico 3-2 and also edging Barbados 3-2 on the opening day.

Barbados rounded out a disappointing preliminary round campaign with a narrow 3-2 win over hosts Puerto Rico.