By BRENT STUBBS
Senior Sports Reporter
bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
WHILE both the men's basketball and softball teams continued to struggle to find a win in their games so far at the 23rd Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, Colombia yesterday as fencing's debut is now over and done with, the track and field team saw Grand Bahamian Alonzo Russell advance to the final by winning his heat of the men's 400 metres.
Russell's time of 46.49 seconds pushed him well ahead of the rest of the field in the second of three semi-finals. He ended up posting the sixth fastest time for the final today when he will run out of lane five sandwiched between Costa Rica's Nery Antonio Cardenas Brenes, who had the fastest qualifying time of 45.60, in lane four, and Dominican Republic's Luguelin Miguel Santos, the third fastest qualifier in 46.10, in lane six. Lidio Andres Felix, also from the Dominican Republic, had the second fastest time of 45.82 and he will run out of lane eight.
Team Bahamas had one other competitor in action yesterday as national record holder Ken Mullings completed the men's decathlon in fifth place overall with a total of 6,973 points. The medallists were Leonel Suarez of Cuba with the gold with 8,026 points, Jose Gregorio Lemos Rivas of Colombia with the silver with 7,913 points and Briander Willia Rivero Rivas of Cuba with the bronze with 7,858 points.
In the final five events yesterday, Mullings got third in the 110m hurdles in 14.57, seventh in the discus with a heave of 33.17 metres or 108-feet, 10-inches, fifth in the pole vault with 4.10m (13-5 1/4), seventh in the javelin with a toss of 47.39m (155-5) and he closed out competition in the 1,500m in sixth place in 5:20.82.
After the first five events on day one of the men's decathlon, Mullings was sitting in fifth place with 3,903 points. He was third in the 100m in 10.97, fourth in the long jump with 7.19m (23-7 1/4), eighth in the shot put with 12.12m (39-9 1/4), won the high jump with 2.05m (6-8 3/4) and got sixth in the 400m in 52.22.
Men's Basketball
The men's national basketball team suffered their second straight loss in the tournament, this time to Cuba (97-80) last night.
Team Bahamas, coached by Quintin 'Three Ounce' Hall, opened a 28-25 first quarter lead, but watched as Cuba prevailed to go up 51-48 at the half. Buy the end of the third, Cuba used a 23-10 spurt to open up a 74-58 advantage and they never looked back as they coasted to victory.
Jackson Jacob once again led the Bahamas' charge with 13 points, three assists, three steals and two rebounds. Two other players were in double figures as Michael Carey Jr had 12 points and Mark St Fort had 11 points, two rebounds, one steal, one assist and a block shot.
Shavanno Cooper and Nashad Mackey both contributed eight points, Michael Bain Jr had seven and Kentwan Smith and Daejoun Adderley added six apiece.
Men's Softball
The men's national softball team suffered their fifth straight loss and their fourth shutout as they got blanked by Cuba 7-0 in six innings yesterday.
Alberto Hernandez fired a perfect game with 11 strike outs and Cuba collected 11 hits as they scored two runs in the first, one in the third, three in the fifth and one in the sixth in their abbreviated victory.
Thomas Davis got the starting nod and he issued nine hits with three walks and six strike outs with six runs, one of which came on a home run, in the first four innings for the loss. Jeffrey Woodside worked the final inning in relief, giving up the other run on two hits with three walks and a strike out.
The Bahamas has one game left in the round robin play today against Guatemala, but they won't be eligible to make the playoffs.
Track and field
On day one of the competition on Sunday, national record holder Katrina Seymour was sixth in her heat of the women's 400m hurdles in 68.37 for 11th place overall, while Andre Colebrooke finished sixth in his heat of the men's 400m hurdles in 51.45 for 14th place overall.
Men's Fencing
Antonio Lewis, the second member of Team Bahamas, also lost all of his matches 5-0 when he contested the men's Foil Individual Pool B. He fell to Juan Sebastian Unda, Colombia's Dimitri Clairet, Guatemala's Luis Alejandro Lopez Gonzalez, Venezuela's Victor Manuel Leon Garcia, Nicaragua's Luis Viterbo Largaespada Simont and Cuba's Michael Carty.
His performance came a day after Andrea Sherman lost all of her matches in the women's Foil Individual Pool A on Sunday.
"I feel very confident, even after the match is over and unfortunately, I wasn't able to win any of my bouts," said Lewis about his debut in the games. "I would say that it was a learning experience and I look forward to (the future) fighting some of the same opponents to see how much I've improved."
The duo was coached by Anthony Lewis Sr.
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