Belize hosts regional karate championship

Good evening I’m James Adderley and we welcome you to Sports Monday. We take you immediately to the City center where all seven Central American countries converged Friday night for the staging of the Fifteenth Central American Karate Championship with Belize in role of host to this massive international event. Among the dignitaries present at this auspicious occasion were Belize City mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers who distributed the awards and Herman Pastor who is receiving recognition for his tireless work pushing the sport of karate in Belize. of course, our cultural prowess was on display with this captivating dance from our Garifuna dancers but we must warn you in advance that prowess was not extended to this particular competition. Friday night mostly saw the Kata side of the tournament and while we gave it our best, El Salvador took gold in the female team Kata beating out Nicaragua and Panama in that order and also prevailed on the male side forcing Panama into silver and Honduras into bronze. In the individual Kata Discipline, Paola Bermudez of Guatemala took gold with this performance while Elena Rivera of Panama settled for silver and Gabriela Portillo of el Salvador and Stephany Berroa of Panama tied for bronze. In the meantime, Guatemala’s Guido Abdala took gold in the individual Kata, Jaime Avalos of El Salvador took silver and Ricardo Ayala of El Salvador and Oscar Garcia of Nicaragua tied for bronze. At the team level El Salvador took gold in both the female and male classification.

Meanwhile, the baffle for gold in the open female Kumite was intense. Stephany Berroa in the blue corner gives Maria Castellanos a real run for the money but the Guatemalan athlete picked up crucial points in the closing moments of the confrontation to grab the gold on an 8-6 score over her Panamanian counterpart. The bright spot for Belize comes in this bronze medal stand off at the under seventy-five kilograms Kumite class as Leon Guild outlasted his opponent Aaron Perez of El Salvador in a 9-6 affair and believe me we needed this win. In the gold medal battle, Guido Abdala of Guatemala does enough against Exel Morales of El Salvador to get the nod from the judges. Folks, the open male Kumite found two Salvadorans fighting for the gold and this flooring of William Serano by Aaron Perez gets him the gold medal in this class. And El Salvador celebrates the overall win in the fifteenth Central American Karate while Belize must ponder on how to approach the sixteenth.

Switching gears, we’re off t the capital city, Belmopan, where on Saturday night the Caribbean Motors Cup matches up Georgetown Ibayani and BRC Blazers in week two of this football tournament inside the Isidoro Beaton Stadium. The Blazers look to strike early off this set piece triggered by Dennis Alvarez who picks out Francisco Bardalez and his header forces Elias Pelayo into a diving save. It’s more Blazers when this pass finds Francisco Bardalez whose good looking launch is only denied by the crossbar. Georgetown finally looks dangerous when Vicente Acal floats this spot kick into the danger zone but the sot from Castillo is right at goalkeeper Luis Cunil. We’re at the forty-fourth minute of the ballgame when Darwin Castillo finds himself at the right place at the right time and he knows what to do with the pill as Ibayani takes the 1-zip lead.

Immediately after intermission the Blazers look for the equalizer but this shot from Francisco Bardalez won’t get the job done. Georgetown comes back with this reply from Jeffrey Apolonio who launches this shot close to the keeper who fumbles on the play but eventually comes up with the ball. On this Ibayani press we must inform this striker who will remain nameless that he is flirting with something known locally as “wata knee”. Folks, we’re not certain who is to blame for the Blazers not coming up with the equalizer here and we’ll have to include the referee. Again the Blazers get close to the equalizer on this header by Ryan Stevens that is directed straight at the keeper. The Blazers find themselves in a bigger hole when this corner kick reaches Alexander Peters who heads it home to give Ibayani a 2-zip lead. Make it 3-nil for Georgetown as Deon Burgess catches up with this corner kick to unleash a crushing head that tangles the net. In injury time Leonard Valdez launches this long distance bouncer that gives BRC Blazers a consolidation goal as they fall 3-1 to the mighty Georgetown Ibayani.

In other action around the league, the Belize Defence Force doubled Shanaiah Corozal 2-1, Hankook Verdes blanked Paradise Freedom Fighters 2-zip while F.C. Belize outlasted the San Pedro Seadogs 2-1. This weekend’s schedule finds Georgetown hosting Hankook Verdes on Saturday. On Sunday BRC Blazers visit San Pedro , Paradise Freedom Fighters will host Shanaiah Corozal and F.C. Belize will face B.D.F. at the M.C.C. Grounds.

Turning to the cycling scene, we’re at Leslie’s Imports just outside Belize City as a two man sprint is in session for the big W in Saturday’s fifty-two mile race presented on the Boom Circuit by the Belize Cycling Association. And it’s Jairo Campos of Team typhoon beating Ruben Cano of Benny’s Megabytes for the big W.  In the meantime, it’s Brandon Cattouse of C-Ray on the outside in this sprint whipping the pack to grab third place; Giovanni Leslie pulls up fourth while Edgar “Nissan” Arana rounds out the top five.

Checking on the Weekend Warriors race staged from Orange Walk to Libertad yesterday, Albert Conorquie of Team Princess won the forty-four mile ride in one hour, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-five seconds as he beat out Leon Stuart of M&M Engineering and Philip Burns of Team Master Cayo to grab top honors.

Meanwhile, we want to give nuff respect to Marlon Castillo of Zamir cycling Team winning the first stage of the Copa del Carmen at Ciudad del Carmen yesterday in solo fashion and that’s big. Teammate Giovanni Choto won the sprint for third place. The second of this four stage series is set for April twenty-fifth and Marlon Castillo goes in wearing the leader jersey.

Hey folks, that’s our show for today. We invite you back same time, same place, next week. Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.