KAREN MEAKINS won silver last night in the women’s badminton singles in Bogota, Colombia, to take the Barbados medal tally at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games to four – one gold, two silver and one bronze.The bronze medal was won by the men’s 50m rifle team early yesterday morning in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.When contacted last night, chef de mission Craig Archer said Meakins lost the gold medal match in straight sets against world No.12 Samantha Teran of Mexico, but individual scores were not available.It was Barbados’ first ever individual squash medal at the Games.In 2006, Barbados won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles, but that will not be so this year. Meakins and Shawn Simpson were knocked out 7-11, 11-9, 11-4; while Cheri-Ann Parris and Liliana White went down 10-11, 11-7, 11-9 to the Guyanese duo of Nicolette Fernandes and Keisha Jeffrey, who made it all the way to the gold medal match of the women’s doubles.The men’s 50m rifle team were the surprise winners of a bronze medal. With individual scores of 516, 512 and 502, respectively; Calvert Herbert, Bernard Chase and Albert Eversley amassed a total of 1530. Mexico picked up the gold medal with 1611 and silver went to Venezuela with 1591. After the first day of competition, Richard Greenidge is joint sixth in the men’s Olympic trap on 44, four behind the leaders.The men’s judo team finished in fourth place, losing the bronze medal match against Mexico and earlier the quarter-final encounter against El Salvador, both by the 5-0 margin. In swimming, gold medalist Bradley Ally was a non-starter in the men’s 200m breaststroke, so no Barbadians were in last night’s finals. Ally is reportedly nursing a sore knee and opted to concentrate on capturing the double in the 200IM. That event was won by Mexican David Oliver Mercado in a record 2:16.10.Trinidadian George Bovell won the men’s 50m free in a record time of 22.23 seconds. Barbadian Martyn Forde did not reach the final after a time of 23.87 seconds in the heats. Also in the morning session, Zabrina Holder was 12th in the 100m butterfly in 1 minute 06.36 and Amara Gibbs was right behind her with 1:07.45. Ariana Vanderpool-Wallace of The Bahamas won gold in that event in 59.74 seconds, inside the record of 61.62 set in the heats.While Mariama Eastmond and Sabrina Scott advanced to the women’s doubles quarter-finals, one by one, the other competitors were eliminated in the badminton draw. Eastmond and Scott came from behind to defeat Nikte Sotomayor and Natalia Flores of Guatemala 16-21, 21-17, 21-15. André Padmore, the last man standing in the singles, fell to Puerto Rican Alejandro Roman 21-14, 21-19. In the men’s doubles, Ryan Holder and Dakeil Thorpe were beaten 21-7, 21-16 by the Surinamese pair of Virgil Soereredjo and Mitchel Wongsodikromo. Up to Press time, Padmore and Wood were still to take on Jamaicans Gareth Henry and Garron Palmer.
