Belize U-17 Women’s Volleyball Team Wins Bronze

Goodnight and welcome to another edition of Sports Monday, I am Paul Lopez. Belize continues to shine regionally in volleyball. The country’s Under-Seventeen National Women’s Volleyball Team put on a medal winning display in the Inaugural Under-Seventeen Women’s Central American Volleyball Championship.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

The tournament was held from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-eight of September in Managua, Nicaragua. Team Belize is returning home with a hard-earned bronze medal. The bronze medal match was against El Salvador on Saturday night. Team Belize defeated El Salvador in three sets. They held them to eight points in the second set. Over the course of the tournament team Belize also defeated Guatemala and Honduras. They lost to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the top two teams in the tournament. Their medal winning run did not stop at the bronze medal. The Under-Seventeen National Women’s Volleyball Team also swept up six of the twelve total individual awards. Akili Jones received Best Server, Best Scorer and second-Best Attacker. Dasialynn Thurton received Best Libero and Best Defender. Emaun Marin received the Best Attacker Award. We say congratulations to the under-seventeen women’s volleyball team.

 

And, while most people were still sleeping at five-thirty on Saturday morning, a group of competitive long-distance runners were out in the pouring rain for the Belize City Council’s half marathon. This is the run’s fourth year, and it sees the participation of half marathon, 10 K and 5 k runners. A total of twenty-one runners competed in the half marathon category, five women and sixteen men. They stood at the starting line as the rain began pouring. Five minutes later, they were still standing there as the rain grew increasingly stronger. At the peak of the downpour, the horn went off and the runners got on their way. The 10 K run got going under less taxing conditions. A total of twenty-three runners competed in this category. That included twelve men and eleven women.

 

In the 5K category, twenty-three runners competed, nine women and fourteen men. Twenty minutes and thirty-nine seconds later Eyon Anderson crossed the finish line as the 5k champions. He was followed closely by Shanir Thompson in second place with twenty-one minutes and eight seconds. Jonathon Chiquin finished the 5K run in third place with twenty-one, fourteen. Here comes Christopher Broaster with a strong first place finish in the 10 K run. He finished in forty-three minutes and fifty seconds. Kliuvert Cal finished the10K in second place with a close forty-four minute and seven seconds. Right behind him, Kenroy Westby came sprinting and crossed the finish line two seconds after. Broaster laid out on the pavement in agony after the race, a testament to the toll a 10 K run takes on the body. One hour and twelve minutes after the start of the half marathon race, Leon O’Brien turned the curve into Marion Jone Sporting Complex solo and in first place.

 

Just over four minutes later, Francisco Lima Caal finished the half marathon in second place. Defending Champion, Albert Davis finished in third place, three minutes slower than his 2023 performance. Special mention goes out to Jesus Contreras, who secured fourth place in the half marathon. Even though he did not make it into the top three, he won the hearts of everyone at the event after he got down on one knew during the award ceremony and proposed to his now fiancé. What an incredible moment to witness.

 

Now, let’s get into some basketball action. The Inter-office basketball league has officially concluded its regular season and is now moving into the 2024 playoffs. The Belize Coast Guard and the BACC Airport teams are advancing into the playoffs as the Division A number one and number two seeds respectively. Tuff E Nuff and BCC are advancing into the playoffs as the Division B number one and number two seeds respectively. IBL ended its regular season with an All-Star night on Friday inside the Belize City Civic Center. The Nando’s Slam Dunk Champion went to Lindsay Young of Transparent BPO. Douglas Valley from Tuff E Nuff was declared the 2024 Cellular World Three-Point Champion. Xylon Belgrove won the 2024 Recinos Imports Skills Challenge. From the all-star match, Keon Rowland was declared the All-Star MVP. The IBL play-in round begins on Thursday night with two matches.

 

And finally, for tonight, one of our faithful viewers sent us a very old newspaper clipping of what could very well be Belize’s first individual gold medalist. It says it right there in the headline. This is an image of five Belizean athletes from 1965 who went to compete in the 1965 Central American Weightlifting Tournament.  Depicted in the image are Lincoln McKesey who won a gold medal in the middleweight category, Frank Hoare who won a gold medal in the heavyweight category, Cameron Pollard who won a silver medal in the welterweight category and Anthony Samuels who won a bronze medal in the bantamweight category.  The fifth individual is Robert Mitchell, their manager. That’s a little piece of history for you. Well folks that is all we have for you in tonight’s coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.