McNee leads way

Ryon Jones, Gleaner Writer

One of Jamaica's strongest medal prospects at the Ocean Spray XX Pan Am Junior Badminton championships being staged at the National Indoors Sports Centre, No. 2 seed Anthony McNee, led three other Jamaicans into the quarter-finals after yesterday's second day of singles action.

McNee, who appears to have shaken off an injury to his left leg, came from a set down to beat Brazil's Leonardo Martim Alkimin ((2-1) 18-21, 21-19, 21-17 in the Under-19 singles and set up a quarter-final meeting with Mexico's Antonio Ocegueda at 2:30 p.m. today.

The 17-year-old McNee described the match as difficult as he was nervous. He is now, however, looking forward to his quarter-final clash.

"The Mexicans are always fast; they don't have the strength, but they have good technique, so I expect a difficult quarter-final match," McNee said. "I really want to past the semi-final as last year I got knocked out at that stage, so even if I come second I would be really happy for it, but I am going for the gold," he added.

Came up short

The other local competitor in the Under-19 section, Gerald Isaacs, came up short against men's top seed Nyl Yakura of Canada, as he was beaten (2-0) 21-15, 21-18.

Jamaica's highest-seeded player in the championships, Shane Wilson, who is ranked at No. 1 in the boys' Under-13 category, was the only local representative to advance to the quarter-finals in his age group. Wilson registered an easy (2-0) 21-6, 21-5 win over Dominic Howard of Barbados. Wilson will play Gokul Kalyanasundaram of the United States of America at 1 p.m. today.

Wilson's brother, Sean, was also the only Jamaican to progress in the Under-15 section after turning back the challenge of El Salvador's Jesus Murillo (2-0) 21-5, 21-10.

In the Under-17 section, bright medal prospect Samuel Ricketts is the lone Jamaican through to the quarter-finals. He did so at the expense of compatriot Jonathon Smith, whom he defeated (2-0) 21-19, 21-16.

In the mixed doubles category, which served off during the morning session, only the duo of Jamari Rose and Diamond Cassanova progressed to the next round of the Under-17 section after defeating the Brazilian pair of Victor Henrique De Jesus Alves and Luana Amaral (2-0) 22-20, 21-17.

Jamaica did not fare much better in the Under-19 mixed doubles category, as only two of the seven teams managed victories. Mikaylia Haldane, who has been having a rough championships final, got something in the winner's column after teaming up with Gerald Isaacs to turn back the challenge of Dominica's duo of Wilton Tabares and Daigenis Santana (2-0) 21-10, 21-16.

The pair of Romone Robinson and Jozanne Suckie was even more convincing in their victory over the Guyanese team of Christopher Persaud and Tricia Ramjit (2-0) 21-9, 21-12.

Up to press time, Jamaica had three teams going through in the boys' doubles, with none of the girls' pairs progressing.

The duo of Jemarey Gordon and Gerald Isaacs made it through in the Under-19 section with victory over Guyana's pair of Christopher Persaud and Kevin Quaicoe (2-0) 21-14, 21-8.

The older Wilson teamed up with Shevon Salmon to defeat the Peruvian pair of Rafael Davila and Jose Guevara (2-0) 26-24, 21-13 in their Under-15 matchup, while Ricketts and Smith joined forces to get by the Brazilian duo of Victor Henrique De Jesus Alves and Italo Hauer Antonassi in their Under-17 match.