Caribbean Sports News
published: Saturday | November 17th 2007

Netball: Despite putting up a valiant fight, Jamaica's Sunshine Girls were beaten 59-49 by defending champions New Zealand, in their semi-final clash at the 12^th World Netball Championships in Auckland, New Zealand.  Jamaica, again playing without Captain Elaine Davis, took the first quarter 16-13 before pushing the game to 30-26 at the half time break.  The Silver Ferns turned the tables on Jamaica in the third quarter to lead 35-34.  Romelda Aiken finished with 30 goals from 32 attempts while Simone Forbes finished with 19 from 23.  Jamaica will now have a third place playoff against England who earlier went down 33-51 to Australia.  Trinidad and Tobago finished 11^th after their 48-45 win over Wales while Barbados ended 13^th when they beat Scotland 51-45. 

Soccer: The Reggae Boyz had their first work out under new interim coach, Theodore Whitmore, on Thursday at the Drewsland mini stadium for the upcoming friendly internationals against El Salvador on Sunday and Guatemala next Wednesday.  The majority of the overseas based players were present at the training sessions.  The defender Shavar Thomas arrived late Thursday.  Captain Ricardo Gardener, one the overseas based players, says he is pleased to see the Boyz back in together.  The Bolton Wanderers player also explained that all his injury woes were behind him.

Jamaica's Tayna Lawrence might not get the gold medal from the 100 meters at the 2000 Sydney Olympics following Marion Jones's doping admission.  International Olympic Association (IOC) officials said they are considering the unprecedented move of leaving the gold medal spot vacant.   Although the original second place finisher normally would be upgraded to the gold, the IOC is reluctant to give the medal to Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou because she was caught up in a doping scandal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.  IOC President Jacques Rogge said no official decision had been made but anything was possible including leaving the position blank.  The IOC ruling could come at the December 10^th to 12^th executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.  Lawrence had finished third with the legendary Merlene Ottey, fourth.