Bradley Jacks is a budding journalist and an avid sports fan. His love of research and sports has led him to SportsMax.tv, a place where those passions work hand in hand to allow him to produce content.
As group play in zone F of the daCosta Cup comes to an end tomorrow, there are still four teams in contention to progress to the next round.
Garvey Maceo have already booked their place in the next round as zone winners on the back of a perfect four wins from four games so far.
Their opponents tomorrow, Foga Road, currently third in the zone on six points, need a win to maintain any chance of qualifying for the next round as second-place finishers in the zone.
The match between those two is the second of a doubleheader at Foga Road and will kick off at 3:30 pm.
The first half of the doubleheader will give Vere Technical, who are second in the zone on seven points, a chance to ensure qualification with a win over Kemps Hill.
The 3:30 pm game at Garvey Maceo between Central High and Old Harbour features the other two teams with an outside chance of getting to the next round.
With both teams on four points, whoever wins that match has an outside chance of advancing if both Vere Technical and Foga Road lose.
Central High has the best goal difference out of those four teams with +2, while both Vere and Foga Road have a goal difference of +1.
Old Harbour has a goal difference of -1.
On Saturday, zones C, E and G will all be decided as well.
Zone C is the most exciting with five teams having a chance to qualify.
Munro College and B.B. Coke are the top two teams in the zone with nine and seven points respectively.
Those two will meet in the 1:15 pm match at STETHS and whoever prevails will advance as zone winners.
STETHS are currently third in the zone on seven points and would secure qualification to the next round with a win over Mt. St. Joseph at Kirkvine in their 1:15 pm clash.
Lacovia and Maggotty are fourth and fifth with six points each and one could qualify with a win and losses from both B.B Coke and STETHS.
In zone E, Lennon High, Clarendon College, and Edwin Allen all have a chance to advance.
Lennon and defending champions, Clarendon College, are both on 10 points with Lennon ahead on goal difference while Edwin Allen has nine points in third.
Lennon will play Edwin Allen in a 3:30 pm game at Turners Field while Clarendon College will battle Glenmuir in a 3:30 pm game at Glenmuir.
If Lennon wins against Edwin Allen, they will advance to the next round, along with Clarendon College, regardless of the result of Clarendon College vs Glenmuir.
If Edwin Allen beats Lennon, Clarendon would only need a draw with Glenmuir to advance.
With only five teams in zone G, St. Thomas Technical have already advanced as zone winners with eight points from their four matches.
Paul Bogle are second in the zone with four points from three games and would join them in the next round with a win over Seaforth at York Oval in their 3:30 pm encounter.
Port Antonio are third in the zone, also with four points, and would advance with a win over Happy Grove and a Paul Bogle draw or loss.
Port Antonio and Happy Grove will square off at Lynch Park at 3:30.
Seaforth and Happy Grove both have two points and could have outside chances to advance with wins.
West Indies wicket-keeper batsman, Joshua Da Silva, believes application at the crease will be the key for the Caribbean side for the remainder of their Test series against Sri Lanka.
The Windies lost the first test to the Sri Lankans by 187 runs in Galle while only managing to score 230 and 160 in their two turns at the wicket.
The problem, according to Da Silva, was a technical one.
“We played a bit too far in front of us, especially in the first innings,” he said.
Da Silva was one of the bright spots in the second innings, making a well-played 54 off 125 balls as part of a 100-run partnership with Nkrumah Bonner, who remained not out at the end on 68.
Speaking after the match, Da Silva highlighted the difficulty of the conditions that the batsmen faced.
“Conditions were challenging. The pitch was turning a lot and the straighter ball was sliding on a bit so it was a difficult new-ball wicket but once the ball got a bit softer, it was a bit easier and we were able to get more on top of the bowlers,” he said.
The Trinidadian also gave some insight into what led to the big second innings partnership with Bonner that saw them take the score from 18-6 to 118-7.
“Well, when I got into the wicket with Bonner we had to rebuild. We had to think about how we were going to get out of a bit of a collapse so we just wanted to bat balls and both of us wanted to be at the wicket at the end of the day,” said Da Silva.
He also said that Sri Lanka didn’t do anything the Windies didn’t expect going into the game.
“They just played the cricket they know how to play. They used their spinners wisely and they batted well in the conditions they know how to bat very well. They used their home advantage,” he said.
Finally, Da Silva explained what needs to change for the West Indies to turn the series around.
“I just think the boys need to fight. We need to believe in ourselves. Nobody goes out there to fail. Everybody’s trying their best so just a bit of application and give yourself some time. You have a lot more time than you think,” he said.
The Windies will be looking to even the series in the second test which begins on Sunday at 11:30 pm local time.
Kingston Technical produced another impressive performance to remain at the top of group A as Manning Cup action continued today.
Goals from Worrell Nelson in the 2nd minute, Beeko Smythe in the 21st minute, and Tadane Williams in the 63rd minute propelled them to a 3-1 win over former champions, St. Georges College, in the first match of a doubleheader at Stadium East.
Lamonth Rochester got the goal for St. Georges College in the 11th minute.
Kingston Technical head coach, Shaun Charlton, pointed to his team’s discipline as a reason they were able to get the job done.
“We have discipline within the team and persons who want to show Jamaica, and by extension abroad, that there is talent in the inner city,” he said.
The second game of the doubleheader saw Kingston High beat Calabar 1-0 to register their first win of the season.
Bridgeport beat Charlie Smith 1-0 in the other group game at the Spanish Town Prison Oval.
Kingston Technical remains on top of the group with nine points followed by Charlie Smith in second with six and St. Georges College in third, also with six.
Meanwhile, in zone B Dacosta Cup action, a doubleheader at Llandilo saw one goal being scored between four teams.
Green Pond and Petersfield played out a 0-0 draw in the first encounter while the second game saw Godfrey Stewart secure a 1-0 over former champions, Rusea’s.
Frome Technical beat Green Island 4-0 in the 3:30 kick-off at Wespow Park.
Frome now moves to the top of the zone with nine points followed by Mannings in second with seven and Petersfield in third, also with seven points.
In zone D, Bellefield thrashed Alston 7-0 and Manchester beat Belair 2-0 in a doubleheader at Manchester.
In the other zone D game, Christiana secured a 2-1 win over Holmwood at Kirkvine.
Christiana still leads zone D with 10 points. Manchester and Bellefield are second and third with seven and five points respectively.
In Zone F, Garvey Maceo maintained their perfect record in the group stage so far with a 3-0 win over Central High at home.
The second game of the day at Garvey Maceo saw Vere Technical get a 2-1 win over Foga Road.
Garvey Maceo leads zone F with 12 points and Vere are second with seven.
McGrath beat York Castle 4-1 in the first game of a zone H doubleheader at Drax Hall.
Charlemont got a 5-2 win over St. Mary High in the second game.
With the win, Charlemont move to the top of the zone with eight points while Dinthill sits second on seven and Ocho Rios are third on five.
Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah has been unveiled as one of the five finalists for female athlete of the year.
Thompson-Herah has been nominated on the back of a phenomenal season on the track which saw her achieve new heights in the sport.
She ran 10.61 to win the 100 metres in Tokyo and followed that up with 21.53 to win the 200 metres, becoming the only woman to win the Olympic sprint double on two occasions after also doing so in Rio five years ago.
She was also a part of Jamaica’s victorious Women’s 4x100 metres relay team.
After the Olympics, Thompson-Herah went on to achieve even more success.
At the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on August 21st, Thompson sped to a personal best and national record time of 10.54 seconds, the second-fastest time ever in the women’s 100 metres.
She broke 10.7 seconds four times this season, including in the Diamond League final in Zurich where she ran 10.65 to win.
Thompson-Herah has been nominated for the award alongside Dutch distance runner, Sifan Hassan, American hurdler, Sydney McLaughlin, Venezuelan Triple Jumper, Yulimar Rojas and Kenyan middle-distance specialist, Faith Kipyegon.
Hassan won the 5000, 10,000 metres double in Tokyo and also broke the 10,000 metres world record this season.
McLaughlin set two new world records in the women’s 400 metres hurdles on her way to winning gold in Tokyo.
Rojas set a new triple jump world record to win gold in Tokyo, and Kipyegon set a new Kenyan record in the women’s 1500 metres while also winning gold in Tokyo.
The winner will be announced at the World Athletics Awards to be held virtually on December 1st.
Deandra Dottin was player of the match as the West Indies Women enjoyed a victorious start to their ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifying campaign in Zimbabwe on Tuesday.
Dottin top-scored with 73 from 87 balls to help the Windies chase down their target of 160 to defeat Ireland by six wickets.
After captain Stafanie Taylor won the toss and elected to field first, the West Indies bowled out Ireland for 159 in 43 overs.
Anissa Mohammed was the pick of the bowlers for the Caribbean side, taking 3-40 from her 10 overs.
She was supported by Hayley Matthews who took 2-20 from her 10.
Shamilia Connell took 2-33 from her 10 and Taylor took 2-15 from her 3 overs.
Gaby Lewis top-scored for the Irish with 36 from 58 balls.
The Windies Women then needed only 39.3 overs to chase their target with Dottin getting 73 and Taylor finishing not out on 41.
The West Indies and Sri Lanka both have two points, having won their first game, with the Windies at the top of the group due to a superior net run rate.
Those two will face off next on Saturday.
Only four overs of play were possible after lunch as the West Indies continued their fightback on day three of the first of their three-test series against hosts Sri Lanka.
After starting the day on 113-6, a strong partnership between former captain, Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers propelled the Windies to 163-6 before Mayers was deceived by off-spinner, Dhananjaya de Silva, and lobbed a catch to captain, Dimuth Karunaratne, at short cover for a top score of 45.
Holder was next to go, caught at point by Dushmantha Chameera off the bowling of Praveen Jayawickrama for 36 with the score on 175.
He tried to play a cut shot off a ball that got some extra bounce and ended up lobbing the ball in the air to Chameera, who took a good catch diving to his right.
Rakheem Cornwall then joined wicketkeeper Joshua da Silva at the crease and the two steadied the ship, bringing the score up to 224 before Cornwall went, caught by Ramesh Mendis, off the bowling of pacer Suranga Lakmal for 38.
Cornwall’s wicket fell on the last ball of the 80th over and the rest of the day’s play was washed out by rain.
The West Indies will start day four on 224-9, still 162 runs behind Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 386 with Joshua da Silva at the crease on 11 and Shannon Gabriel yet to score.
West Indies Women captain, Stafanie Taylor, has warned against complacency from her team as they begin their quest to qualify for the 2022 ICC Women’s World Cup to be held in New Zealand from March to April in 2022.
The Windies Women open their campaign tomorrow at 2:30am local time against Ireland in Harare and Taylor has warned against underestimating their opponents.
“That’s one thing you don’t want to do. Everyone’s here to win the competition. We’re not here to take any team for granted. We’re here to play hard cricket and come out on top,” said Taylor.
With the West Indies Women having completed a 3-0 series sweep against Pakistan prior to their arrival in Harare, Taylor says she hopes the team can carry their momentum into the tournament.
“I think we had a good series against Pakistan so I would love to see us continue where we left off from there. We’ve been playing some good cricket and getting some really good scores from our top players and even the lesser batting line up," she said.
Taylor concedes, however, that even with the team entering the qualifiers in good form there are still areas that need improvement.
“In our batting, it’s running the first one hard, turning twos into threes. In bowling, bowlers need to get early wickets and eliminate the wides,” she said.
The captain also provided some insight into the confidence of the team coming off some good results before the tournament.
“The morale is pretty good, especially seeing batters getting runs. I think that’s something that we’ve been working on because we’ve been relying on the bowling department for quite some time now so it’s really nice that the batters have been scoring those runs,” she said.
The West Indies other group games will be Saturday, November 27th against Sri Lanka and Monday, November 29th against the Netherlands with both matches beginning at 2:30am local time.
The Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers feature nine teams divided into two groups.
West Indies Women are in group A alongside Ireland, Sri Lanka and The Netherlands while group B comprises Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Zimbabwe and the USA.
Papua New Guinea were also supposed to be in the field but had to withdraw after a Covid-19 outbreak within the team before boarding their flight to Zimbabwe.
The top three teams from each group will advance to the Super 6 phase and the top three teams at the end of that phase will qualify for the 2022 World Cup alongside Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa and England.
Bahamian two-time Olympic 400m champion, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, has expressed pride that Bahamian athletes won gold medals in both the men’s and women’s 400 metres at the Olympics in Tokyo this past summer.
In the first game of a zone C doubleheader at STETHS, B.B. Coke secured a 2-1 victory over Lacovia.
Danyea Whitely scored both goals for B.B. Coke, the first coming off a brilliant team move just before halftime, in the 46th minute, and the second coming from a close range left-footed strike in the 76th minute.
B.B. Coke have now scored 22 goals in three games while conceding just one and lead zone C with seven points.
B.B. Coke head coach Kirk Ricketts is looking for consistency from the team after getting to the top of the zone.
“To remain consistent, we are not leading by ten points so we must be consistent and take it one game at a time,” he says.
The second half of the doubleheader saw Munro College defeat STETHS 2-1 with goals from Ceon Falconer in the 54th minute and Xavier Bruce in the 74th minute.
Donte Campbell scored a penalty for STETHS in the 83rd minute.
The win moves Munro up to third in the zone behind B.B Coke and Lacovia with six points while STETHS now sit fourth on four points.
Zone B leaders, Mannings, were held to a 2-2 draw by Rusea’s at Green Pond and now have seven points from three matches.
Frome Technical moved to third in the zone behind Mannings, and Petersfield, with six points, after a 3-1 win over Godfrey Stewart in their 3:30 game at Llandilo.
At Wespow Park, Green Island beat Green Pond 2-1 to get their first points of the season.
In Zone D action, leaders Christiana were held to a 1-1 draw by Bellefield at Kirkvine in their 3:30 encounter.
Elsewhere, Belair secured a 2-1 over Alston in the first match of a doubleheader at Manchester High to move into fourth in the zone.
Manchester moved to second in the zone by securing the biggest win of the day in the competition, a 7-0 demolition of DeCarteret College in the second game.
Christiana leads zone D with seven points followed by Manchester, Holmwood, and Belair with four points each.
In a zone F doubleheader at Foga Road, Vere Technical and Foga Road both secured 1-0 victories over Old Harbour and Central High respectively.
Garvey Maceo secured a 3-0 win over Kemps Hill at home in the other zone F game on the day.
Garvey Maceo leads zone F with nine points from three matches, followed by Foga Road on six and Central High on four.
Dinthill Technical defeated McGrath 4-0 at home to move to seven points and remain at the top of zone H.
Ocho Rios moved to second in the zone on five points after a 6-0 win over St. Mary High in the second match of a doubleheader at Drax Hall. Charlemont beat Brown’s Town 1-0 in the first match and moved to third in the zone, also on five points.
Manning Cup
Moving over to Manning Cup action, the first match of the group A doubleheader at Jamaica College saw Kingston Technical, who beat JC 1-0 in their last game in a shock result, produce another solid display to brush aside Kingston High 5-0 and move to the top of the group with six points from three games.
Jamaica College used goals from Giovanni Mitto and Duncan McKenzie to beat Charlie Smith 2-0 for their first win of the season in the second match of the doubleheader.
JC remain fifth in the group with four points from three games.
Elsewhere in group A, St. Georges College got their second win is as many games with a 1-0 win over Bridgeport at the Spanish Town Prison Oval to move to second.
Charlie Smith sits third on six points and Calabar are fourth on four points.
Camperdown High strengthened their position atop Group B by moving to a perfect nine points from three matches after securing a 2-1 win over STATHS in their 12:00 game at Stadium East.
Elsewhere, Dunoon Technical came back from two goals down to earn their first point of the season against Jonathan Grant in the 12:00 game at the Spanish Town Prison Oval. Jonathan Grant remains second in Group B with seven points from three games.
In other Group B results, Tivoli High scored a 2-0 win over Jose Marti at the Spanish Town Prison Oval and Excelsior beat St. Jago 2-1 at Stadium East.
Meanwhile, in the Dacosta Cup, a clash between the top two teams in Zone A saw William Knibb beat Herbert Morrison 4-1 in their 1:15 encounter at Irwin High thanks to a hat trick from Mark Lewis. William Knibb is now in sole possession of first place in the zone with a perfect nine points from three games, while Herbert Morrison remains second with six.
Cornwall College and St. James High played out a 0-0 draw in the second game of the day at Irwin. Elsewhere in Zone A, a double header at William Knibb saw Irwin beat Holland 3-2 and Spot Valley defeat Maldon 2-0.
On the other hand, in a battle of the bottom two teams in Zone C, Maggotty High secured a 4-0 win over Mount St. Joseph in a 3:30 fixture at STETHS to secure their first points of the season. Maggotty captain Rohan Palmer opened the scoring in the 22nd minute with a right-footed shot from just outside the 18-yard box. Their lead was doubled in the 48th minute by Andre Ennevor. Raheem Williams came off the bench to get goal number three in the 82nd minute and the scoring was completed two minutes later by another substitute, Robinho Barrett.
Maggoty High head coach, Xavier Hendricks, was happy with the result.
“The aim today was to get the three points and I’m happy with the three points, just to get some points on the table for the upcoming games that we have.”
In Zone E, Clarendon College were awarded a 3-0 win over Claude McKay as the latter failed to show up to their clash scheduled for 1:15 at Turners Field.
Lennon High secured a 3-2 win over Glenmuir in the 3:30 game at Turner's Field to move to the top of the zone. Lennon and Clarendon College now both have seven points with Lennon ahead on goal difference. Those two are closely followed by Glenmuir and Edwin Allen who are both on six after Edwin Allen got by Denbigh 2-1 at Glenmuir for their second win of the season.
The Zone G double header at York Oval in St. Thomas ended without any goals. In the first game, Paul Bogle was held to a goalless draw by Happy Grove and the game between Seaforth and St. Thomas Technical followed the trend.
Two-time Olympic 400m gold medalist Shaunae Miller-Uibo has revealed that injuries significantly impacted her Olympic preparation throughout the 2021 season when she had planned to focus on the 200m.
Speaking on Sportsmax TV’s On Point, Millier-Uibo said an injury she sustained while running 49.08 to win the 400 metres at the USATF Grand Prix in Eugene on April 24th prevented her from doing any speed training in preparation for Tokyo.
“We were supposed to start our speed training after Eugene at the end of April and that’s when I got hurt so we never really got a chance to jump into speed work. It’s unfortunate sometimes in track,” she said.
As it turns out, the injury was more serious than she initially thought.
“At the end, we found out that it was a tear in my gluteus medius. I actually stalled for a bit with trying to fix it because I didn’t quite know what it was at first. It just felt as though something was jammed so I figured maybe I could go to the chiropractor and get it sorted out. We tried that and it didn’t help,” she said.
The gluteus medius is a muscle located on the outer surface of the pelvis.
The three-time World Championship medalist says the pain started to ease going into the rest of the season until she went to compete at the Adidas Boost Boston Games in May.
“It started to get a little softer going into the rest of the season and then I went to Boston to compete and realized this is something really bad and the minute we get back home I’m going to check and see what it is. Took an MRI and found out there was a slight tear in my gluteus medius so we decided to rest it off and go slowly from there to try and build it up in time for Tokyo,” she said.
Injuries also affected her in Tokyo as was evident in the final of the Women’s 200 metres where Miller-Uibo finished eighth in a time of 24.00.
“I went into Tokyo nursing an injury and right before the heats, I felt really good. Everything was going really well and it was after the heats that I got a little banged up where I started to feel my right hip. I went and raced on it because it was still light at the time, raced into the semis and really hurt it then.”
In addition the trouble with her hip, Miller-Uibo also felt pain in her hamstring in her 200 metres semi-final.
“In the race itself I actually didn’t feel the hip. It was my hamstring that ended up grabbing on me and it was just a wrap from there.”
The Bahamian champion overcame her struggles and returned days later to storm to a new personal best 48.36 and win her second consecutive Olympic women’s 400 metres title.
The full interview with Shaunae Miller-Uibo can be seen on Sportsmax TV’s YouTube channel.
St. Catherine High got their second win in as many games to move to the top of Group C as action continued in the Manning Cup competition on Thursday with a 26-0 hammering of St Mary's College at Stadium East in Kingston.
It was the largest margin of victory in the competition in decades.
Joel Palmer and Nickel Ellis each scored six goals for St. Catherine who led 19-0 at halftime.
However, despite the massive margin of victory, St. Catherine High's assistant coach Andre Daley was still not satisfied with the team's performance.
“The most important thing is that we got the three points but we didn’t play to our full potential today,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kingston College smashed Clan Carthy 7-0 in the early game at Stadium East to move to second in the group and join St. Catherine with six points from two games, trailing only on goal difference.
Elsewhere in the group, Mona High rebounded from their opening-day loss to KC by beating Papine 10-0 at Jamaica College to move to fourth place in the group with three points from their two games behind St. Catherine, KC and Wolmer’s, whose next match is against KC on November 24, at Stadium East.
Wolmer's and Mona both have three points but Wolmer's are third thanks to their 13-0 thumping of St. Mary's College in their first game.
Bahamian superstar sprinter Shaunae Miller-Uibo has her sights set on establishing a new world record in the women’s 400 metres.
Defending Manning Cup champions Jamaica College remained winless after two games this season after falling to a shock 0-1 loss at home against Kingston Technical High School in Group A action on Wednesday.
Jaheem Bryan scored the winning goal for Kingston Technical that see them climb to fourth place in the group with three points, two more than Jamaica College that have one point from their two games so far. JC drew their opening match against Calabar High School 0-0.
Elsewhere in the group, Calabar secured a 5-0 win over Bridgeport in the 12:00 kick-off at Stadium East thanks to a Darren Chinnon hat trick.
In the 3:00 pm match at the same venue, Demar Brown got both goals as Charlie Smith defeated Kingston High 2-0.
Over in the rural DaCosta Cup competition, DeCarteret College and Bellefield High played to an exciting 2-2 draw in Group D action at the Manchester High School Field.
DeCarteret’s Alex Muschamp opened the scoring in the 57th minute with an acrobatic finish off a corner kick. DC doubled their lead two minutes later when team captain Douglas Whitely scored with a free-kick from beyond the half-line, the ball taking an awkward bounce over the head of Bellefield goalkeeper Chad Wright.
Bellefield would eventually rally and cut the deficit in half in the 70th minute through a tidy finish from Mark Rowe. They levelled the scores in the 87th minute through a Renardo Forquharson penalty.
DeCarteret College assistant coach, Merrick Plummer, put the result down to a loss in concentration by his team.
“We’re not happy because we were leading 2-0 until the last 20 minutes," he said. "We lost focus and the concentration level dropped so we ended up giving away the two late goals.”
Bellefield head coach Rayon Johnson regretted missed chances by his team.
“It’s not a happy moment to come out with a point. We started out well, created a few chances that we should have scored but it’s just unfortunate that we conceded and everything went on its head,” he said.
In other results:
Group B
Green Pond 4 Godfrey Stewart 0
Mannings School 3 Green Island 1
Petersfield 3 Rusea’s 1
Group C
Munro College 1 Maggotty High 0
STETHS 0 B.B. Coke 0
Group D
Christiana 5 Belair 1
Holmwood Technical 0 Manchester High 0
Group F
Kemps Hill 1 Foga Road 3
Old Harbour 1 Garvey Maceo 2
Group H
McGrath High 2 Charlemont 2
York Castle 3 St. Mary High 2
Ocho Rios High 0 Dinthill Technical 0
Olympic bronze medallist, Candice McLeod, says her success on the track this season was due mainly to getting more rest and a proper diet during the pre-season.
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