SSM | Sargossan State Media
International Edition - Sport
Here Come The Girls
Mario Najar reports;
Day Five was a little tough to bear, particularly in the pool where pre-tournament bluster has evaporated in the midst of an almighty melee in the swimming events. Medals have been significantly harder to win here in Bay City, with none of the traditional watery powers really pulling away from the chasing pack. Thrilling for spectators down in the rather beautiful Aquatics Centre, but nightmarish for those in charge of their respective Swimming delegations.
Fortunately, on the morning of Day Six, there was slightly better form shown by Sargossa’s finest. On the Men’s side of the draw Antonio Sanz was a comfortable qualifier for the evening’s semis in the 200m Backstroke and he still had enough to spare to do the same, albeit with slightly less comfort, in the 200m IM. Joining him in the Medley semis would be Luís Bogarín, who looked in decent shape as the sixth fastest qualifier. The Women had Freestyle to endure but even that didn’t throw the usual spanner into the works, with Joaquima Mas advancing in the 100m event and the 4 x 200m Relay team reaching their final. Although that was helped by a series of administrative errors on the part of a number of delegations which meant only twelve teams were successfully registered for the event.
So to the evening session and the nation’s hardest working man, Antonio Sanz. Having successfully negotiated two heats in the morning Sanz looked strong again in the semis of the 200m Backstroke, qualifying for the final in third place. No sooner had he towelled himself down then he was back in the water for the first semi of the 200m IM. And a good day’s work was completed with a time of 1:58.48 which saw him bag the very last place in the final. There were no such worries for Luís Bogarín who finally showed a glimpse of the potential we know he has by winning his semi and advancing to the final as the second fastest qualifier. But there was a tinge of disappointment in a thrilling final of the Men’s 200m Breaststroke, in which just four one hundredths of a second separated third and seventh places. Amado Mula fell agonisingly outside the podium positions in fifth.
The Women had to endure similar disappointment with star turn Adriana Abarca managing just sixth in the final of the 200m Butterfly. But the girls would come good, with Joaquima Mas swimming a blinder in the 100m Freestyle semi to qualifier for the final in second place before Team Sargossa held off a strong Wray challenge to take silver in the Relay. It wasn’t quite the gold they won in Orean but it’ll do nicely thank you very much. That result ensured a second podium place of these Games for a clearly delighted Erlina Minaya and also secured a seventh Olympic accolade for Abarca, her third successive medal in this very event.
And the girl power theme was making a presence on dry land too with the start of the Beach Volleyball events. Olympic old stagers Alda Abad and Yasbel Gomez suffered a slight scare in their opening pool match with the Al-Mumtaz duo of Rachelle and Nadia but came through 15 – 12 in the decider. But there were no such problems for the Camino siblings, Ariela and Lia comfortable winners in their opening match against Windsor Islanders Tiffany Vaughn and Erin Richards. So a good start for the Beach Teams and the Indoor side is doing even better, Estope their latest victims. And talking of winning streaks, the Women’s Handball side made it three wins from three to advance to their Octo-Finals. Sadly the Hockey side weren’t quite so fortunate, defeat to Hazamaeia sending them out of the competition entirely.
We’ve also seen the start of the Tennis tournament proper, another highly contested area of the Games and one that bristles with extra security thanks to the presence among the competitors of a certain national leader who won't be named. And it was two in and one out on both sides of the gender gap. For the Men Alejandro Lara came through a bruising encounter with Costa Lunan Vito Najera, taking it 15 – 13 in the deciding set. Diego Medina also advanced in three sets, a 7 – 5 winner in the third over Wray’s Nathaniel Keller. But David Uribé crashed out. On the Women’s side there were wins for both Lucena Montés and Catalina Laurel but Xuxa Asuncion, the Sargossan number one, suffered a shock early exit from the Singles event to Kelssek’s Nicole Laviolette.
