San Pedro Athletes At Commonwealth Games In Australia
The Belize Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association has set up two teams of athletes to participate at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Gold Coast 2018, is an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that will be held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, between 4 and 15 April 2018.
The first team of athletes left on Sunday, April 1, 2018, the total delegation consisted of 15 athletes and three coaches that will participate in four events at the Commonwealth Games, those events are Athletics, Cycling, Table Tennins and the Triathalon. This year two of San Pedro’s very own are part of the Belize delegation; Brandon Santos (triathlon athlete) and Kent ‘Bob’ Gabourel (triathlon coach).
Other athletes representing Belize in the Athletics are Samantha Dirks, Katy Sealy, Shaun Gill, Brandon Jones along with Coach- Denis Costello and Delegate – Jaheed Smith. The contingent for cycling includes Alicia Thompson, Edgar Arana Giovanni Lovell and Oscar Quiroz along with Coach – Perry Gibson. Representing for Table Tennis is Devesh Hukmani, Rohit Pagarani, Terry Su and Coach – Gabriel Guererro.
Click here to read the rest of the article and see more photos in the Ambergris Today
A Belize contingent of 12 athletes, nine males and three females are at the 2018 Commonwealth games in Gold Coast, Australia.
Cyclist Alicia Thompson carried the flag during the opening ceremony - which looked like this - with video provided by team Head of Mission Giovanni Alamilla:...
Triathlete Is Ready
Belize is participating in track and field, cycling and table tennis and triathlon. That event was held today in Australia which is 12 Horus ahead. Here's what our lone competitor said about his preparation:..
Promising Youths For Table Tennis
In table tennis Devesh Hukmani, Rohit Pagarani and Terry Su were also preparing to play Nigeria - they spoke about the match:...
For the next eleven days in Gold Coast, Australia, the focus will be on sports as the members of the Commonwealth of Nations meet in friendly sporting combat. Belize is in the thick of it with twelve athletes participating in four disciplines. Head of Mission Giovanni Alamilla of the Belize Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association spoke to a few of them as they prepared to head out to conquer the world.
Voice of: Giovanni Alamilla, Head of Mission
“Devesh, you did the individual and team?”
Devesh Hukmani, Table Tennis
“Individual and doubles.”
Voice of: Giovanni Alamilla
“And doubles; how was it? How did the scores go?”
Devesh Hukmani
“Ranged from eleven-five, eleven-six.”
Voice of: Giovanni Alamilla
“Terry?”
Terry Su, Table Tennis
“I did the doubles with Devesh. We lost three-zero: eleven-six, eleven-five, eleven-four.”
Rohit Pagarani, Table Tennis
“I did the individual [event], I competed in the first match but I lost three-zero.”
Voice of: Giovanni Alamilla
“When do you compete today?”
All
“Today at twelve-o-clock.”
Voice of: Giovanni Alamilla
“Against who?”
All
“Malaysia.”
Voice of: Giovanni Alamilla
“How was the bike and the run?”
Brandon Santos, Triathlon
“The bike – I got on the bike ride for the twenty-K, I did it in about thirty-six minutes. It was solo run mostly so it was good, I was expecting a little less but I tried my best.”
Voice of: Giovanni Alamilla
“And the run?”
Brandon Santos
“The run – after working hard on the bike by myself, it was really hard; and my legs didn’t come through until the second lap, so I did it in about twenty-three minutes.”
Voice of: Giovanni Alamilla
“How you feel, Samantha, are you ready?”
Samantha Dirks, Athletics
“Yeah, I feel good, I’ve been training for this event and I have good training partners from the Caribbean too; so I’m excited to get out there and do what I have to do.”
Voice of: Giovanni Alamilla
“And you’re fully recovered from the jetlag?”
Samantha Dirks
“(Laughs) Yes, I’ve been here a week, so I feel good.”
Alicia Thompson, Cycling
“I compete on the tenth of April; that will be the individual time trial, which should be about fourteen point nine miles and I hope I could do a good time. The fourteenth is the road race, which should be about seventy-three miles; that would be equivalent to our Cross Country that we did.”
Shaun Gill, Athletics
“Shaun Gill, representing in the hundred-meter dash on Sunday the eighth of April.”
Voice of: Giovanni Alamilla
“How has your preparation gone leading up to this event?”
Shaun Gill
“Leading up to the Games it was rigorous training, very hard, every day, sometimes three times a day, so hoping to do good.”
Last night we showed you a few amateur interviews with the young Belizean athletes at the Commonwealth Games in Australia. The team is participating in Track and field, cycling, table tennis among other disciplines. One day into the competition, here is another update on how the games have been going so far for a few of the athletes. They spoke to Chief Of Mission Giovanni Alamilla
Commonwealth Cyclists were Class of the Caribbean ‘Down Under’
Most of Belize’s delegation to the Commonwealth Games concluded on Sunday in Gold Coast, Australia, returned to Belize this afternoon. There were no medals to show off, but the athletes who participated in cycling, table tennis, triathlon and athletics say they enjoyed testing their limits against some of the best in the world. The cycling contingent featured flag bearer Alicia Thompson and elite performers Giovanni Lovell, Oscar Quiroz and Nissan Arana, coached by Perry Gibson. While Thompson says she knows she has much more work to do, Gibson said that in the boys’ case, we can console ourselves that we are among the best in our region.
Alicia Thompson, Cyclist, Commonwealth Games
“For the time trial, I think it was twenty-five-point-four kilometers, which was about sixteen miles. Unfortunately, I was last in the time trial, but it was a great experience – both events, the road race and the time trial. I know now the hard work that I need to put in, in order to be able to be at that certain level, to participate and compete with those ladies.”
Perry Gibson, Cycling Coach
“What we do when we go to these games is we try to be the best in the Caribbean – that is our goal. And in the time trial we were able to do that, albeit in fortieth place, but we were still the best – first and second, and then a guy from Antigua was third from the Caribbean, so in the time trial we achieved what we went there to do. However, in the road race we were badly outmatched; in the nine laps, from the race started, it was a hundred and fifteen riders and the professionals basically pushed the race to break it up and not have any accidents. And despite that we had about five accidents in the first five miles of the race because it was so fast. Our guys, basically Nissan and Giovanni were caught in two crashes; Oscar was more fortunate and he was able to last five of the nine laps before they took him out – because once you fall ten minutes behind, they take you out.”
Aaron Humes
“As you said, a very high standard of competition. Do we prepare well enough for these kinds of events, because admittedly its once every four years, and our race – I think Cross Country is our longest and that’s still only a hundred and forty-two miles. These guys I don’t think ride that much but they ride much more often and in much harder conditions.”
Perry Gibson
“This race was a hundred and five miles. We did a hundred and forty mile Cross Country two weeks ago, but the level is completely different. These are professionals; these are people who are paid to ride and they are full-time cyclists. So in terms of preparing to do this, the preparation for Cross Country allowed us to basically compete at the level of our region – not worldwide, not for the world, we are unable to compete on the worldwide stage. So for the Caribbean, that is basically our goal and I think for the time trial we did that.”
Having our athletes represent our nation is wonderful. It will take us a number of years to build up our programmes to be able to seriously pose competition to the elite and this all starts by bringing awareness of how vital sports are to our youth and our society in general. We must take the first steps towards being able to provide world contenders by supporting sports initiatives and encouraging the dedication and commitment that being a world class athlete requires. Funding is always a major hurdle which makes a big difference in how much time an athlete and the support teams can spend improving their skills.
I commend our teams and say - Three Cheers for Belize.
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