News

By Journal Sports Writer

After beating the team of Andrea Gamiz and Mariana Muci from Venezuela in the semi-finals of the women’s doubles competition on Thursday Bahamians Larika Russell and Nikita Fountain experienced a roller coaster of a final but found the will to pull off a gold medal performance at the Central American Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico on Friday.

In the finals they faced the talented duo of Francesca Segarelli and Daysi Espinal from the Dominican Republic. The Bahamians got off to a dominating start and won the first set 6-0, but got too relaxed in the second set and allowed the Dominicans to tie the match at two sets each after losing 4-6 to force the tie break.

The tie break was also a roller coaster that saw Fountain and Russell trail early in the tie breaker before coming back to win 11 of the final 13 points to take the set and the gold medal match with a 13-11 win. Russell had just come off a semi-final loss to Monica Puig from Puerto Rico two hours earlier.

In her singles semi-final Russell fell to Puig 6-1 and 6-2. Puig went on to win the women’s singles title over Adriana Perez from Venezuela 6-3 and 6-2 on Saturday.

Late Thursday Devin Mulling and Marvin roll settled for the bronze medal in the men’s doubles competition after losing their semi-final to Jose DeArmas and Piero Luis from Venezuela 6-4, 4-6 and 3-10.