Alia makes it four

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

Jamaica's Alia Atkinson captured her fourth gold medal in the pool at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico yesterday.

Atkinson won the women's 50 metres breaststroke in a national and meet record 31.91 seconds to add to the gold medals she won earlier this week in the 200m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke and 200m individual medley. In basketball, Jamaica's women secured a historic bronze medal after seeing off the Virgin Islands, 69-58, in a keenly contested third-place battle yesterday.

US-based Vanessa Gidden had an inspired game coming off the bench to post a game-leading 24 points and six rebounds. The 6' 3" Gidden was dominating on all fronts and returned an impressive six shots from 12 attempts from the floor; a 50 per cent shooting percentage on the night.

Impressive figures

Simone Edwards with 20 points was another major architect of the Jamaican triumph with some impressive figures at both ends of the court. Edwards who scored 11 points in the team's last outing also registered 13 rebounds and four assists in her 33 minutes of court action to go with her points tally to push the Jamaicans to the podium position.

Tajay Ashmeade with eight points and 11 rebounds was another key figure for the Timothy Eatman-conditioned Jamaicans, who were claiming their first women's basketball medal at the CAC Games.

Day Natalie was the standout performer for the Virgin Islands team, returning 17 points and 16 rebounds in their losing cause.

The Jamaicans had earlier lost to Puerto Rico 63-44 at the semi-final stage. It was the Jamaicans' second defeat at the hands of the host Puerto Rico in a month. They had also lost to the Puerto Ricans at the recent CentroBasket tournament.