While it’s still early in the XIII Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, Canada, the territory’s athlete with the strongest chance of bringing home a gold medal has missed the mark.
The long jump results from Flora Hyacinth, 33, fell short of her usual capabilities, leaving her in eighth place in that event. Hyacinth, who won a gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Venezuela last year, jumped 6.18 meters. The winner, Maurren Maggi of Brazil leapt 6.59 meters.
Some 5,000 athletes from 42 western hemisphere countries are participating in this year’s Pan Am Games, the third-largest multi-sport event held in North America after the Los Angeles and Atlanta Olympics.
The V.I. team consists of 24 members in boxing, equestrian, fencing, sailing, shooting, swimming, tennis and track and field.
In sailing, Benjamin Beer in the Finn class, Anthony Kotoun in Laser and Paul Stoeken in Mistral are hovering just above the bottom of their categories four races into the 11-race Pan Am regatta.
In 1995, the V.I.’s J-24 team of Peter Holmberg, Chris Neille, Chris Rosenberg and Maurice Kurg sailed to a silver medal.
One high point so far in these games is Chris Rice, who finished fifth among 30 shooters in the Free Pistol competition.
The other high point, off the field, was the team leadership of Hyacinth, who carried the V.I. flag during the competition’s opening ceremony, and the exposure to international competition the event gives V.I. athletes, said Dr. Cora Christian, part of the V.I. delegation at the games.
Since the games go on until Aug. 8, they started on Friday, the V.I. team is still in the running for some medals. Still to be run are the men's 110 meter hurdles, the women's 10,000 meter, all the equestrian events and more shooting and sailing.
Boxing, fencing, swimming and tennis events begin later in the games.
The V.I. team consists of: Track and Field: Hyacinth; sprinter Steven Jones; distance runner Jackie Morgan and and hurdler Jeff Jackson.
Tennis: Aisha Christian; Eugene Highfield and Nichole Syms.
Swimming: Jamie Shufflebarger; Josh Laban; Ashley Allaire; Scott Hensley; Rocco Colabella; Adrian Smith and George Gleason.
Shooting: Chris Rice and Bruce Meredith.
Sailing: Ben Beer; Anthony Kouton and Paul Stoeken.
Fencing: Tashmo Marsh
Equestrian: Charles Holzer; Gigi Hewitt (CAC silver medalist) and Stephanie Angus.
Boxing: Gibeon Gonzalez
