THE GOLD MEDAL FIGHT just continues to elude Anderson Emmanuel.
Just call Barbados’ top boxer the bronze king as the heavyweight missed out on another top-two podium finish after dropping Monday’s semi-final bout 24-6 on points to Ecuador’s Julio Castillo at the 16th Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.
It serves as Emmanuel’s fourth bronze at a major meet, following two separate Central American and Caribbean Games semi-final defeats and a loss during the Commonwealth Games final four over the last five year.
At least he was able to take the canvas this time, having been forced to pull out of the semis of both last year’s CAC Games and the 2006 Commonwealth Games with near identical soft tissue injuries to his left upper forearm.
But he might’ve rethought his decision to enter the ring on this occasion after Castillo stormed to an early 8-2 lead at the end of the opening round prior to winning the second and the third 9-2 and 7-2 respectively.
Emmanuel’s bronze proved to be Barbados’ second of the day, though, coming on the heels of sprinter Shakera Reece’s national record run of 11.26 seconds in the women’s 100 metres.
It doubles the country’s performance at the 2007 edition in Rio, Brazil, where Barbados managed a mere bronze medal behind the efforts of Olympic swimmer Bradley Ally.
On the turf, the ultraamarine and gold suffered through even more hockey woes as the women slumped to their third defeat in four games following a 3-1 defeat to Mexico in yesterday’s classification game.
Barbados actually took an early lead as Cher King opened the scoring in the 13th minute to give the lasses an advantage they held for the majority of the first half. But Mexico knotted the scores just one minute into the game’s resumption before adding another two unanswered field goals. (JM)
