By Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport EditorMANCHESTER, England:
JAMAICA'S SUNSHINE Girls face an uphill task in the Manchester Evening News Arena this evening when they face mighty New Zealand in the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games netball competition.
New Zealand topped Pool A of the competition with maximum eight points scoring 365 goals for with 101 against to boast the best record in the tournament.
Jamaica on the other hand had to survive a playoff with Wales to get into the last four after losing easily in Pool B round robin competition to Australia. Jamaica have a record of 246-168.
The Jamaica team can take some comfort from the fact that they were involved in a much more difficult preliminary competition which included two tough teams, Australia and South Africa and are thus well prepared for the challenge.
New Zealand's Irene Van Kyk, a former South African player, has been their top shooter in the tournament, consistently converting 90 per cent of her shots against all teams. Jamaica's Elaine Davis and Simone Forbes have also been shooting at a high percentage with the latter converting 95 per cent of her shots (20 of 21) against South Africa. The game will be played at 6.30 p.m. here (12.30 p.m. Ja time).
In swimming, Janelle Atkinson reached the final the women's 800m freestyle final for the second Games in a row. She goes into today's medal round with the third fastest time behind England's Rebecca Cooke who won in heat one in 8.33.31 and Australia's Amanda Pascoe who won heat two in 8:40.80.
Atkinson was second in heat one in 8:41.91. Her comments after the heat suggested she can go much faster.
"It was a good race. The last 25 metres were fairly easy and I am aiming to be in the top three," Atkinson said.
She could be forced to get below her best of 8:34.51 to earn a medal here. Tamara Swaby was eliminated in the heats of the women's 100m butterfly after placing seventh in 1:04.25. The heat was completed in a Games record 58.45 seconds by Australia's 50m butterfly gold medallist Petria Thomas.
Charles Pyne and Alexander Haddad were ousted from the men's doubles in the round of 32 in the badminton competition. They were beaten 7-0, 7-0, 7-1 by New Zealand's Geoff Bellingham and Chris Blair.
Shooters Jose Nunez and Keith Hammond finished at the bottom of the field in men's 50m Rifle Prone - Singles. Nunez scored 564 to be 35th of 38 while Hammong was just behind in 36th place with 553. Australia's Timothy Lowndes won gold with 595.
In squash, James Bullock and Wayne Prescod lost twice in men's doubles Pool D and were eliminated. They were first beaten 15-6, 15-4 by Guernsey's Jason Nicolle and Gareth Webber then went down 15-7, 15-8 to Australia's Stewart Boswell and Anthony Ricketts.
Doubles pair Peter Moo Young and Chris Marsh did not get past the round of 32 in table tennis. They were defeated 11-9, 11-4, 6-11, 11-5 by Stavros Tsouderos and Andreas Tsiambos of Cyprus.
Cyclists Horace McFarlane and Chris Tavares-Finson did not complete yesterday's men's 20km Scratch Race.
JAMAICANS IN ACTION TODAY
CYCLING
Men's points race final: Chris Tavares-Finson, Horace McFarlane
Men's team sprint qualification: Horace McFarlane, Ricardo Lynch, Chris Tavares-Finson
NETBALL
Semi-final: Jamaica vs New Zealand
SWIMMING
800m freestyle final: Janelle Atkinson
