Jamaican Alia Atkinson advance to finals

Olympian Alia Atkinson became the first Jamaican to qualify for a medal round at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India by progressing to the 50-metre breaststroke final on today’s first day of action.



Atkinson, who won four gold medals at the recent Central American and Caribbean Games, qualified for tomorrow’s final following a fourth place finish in semi-final one in 32.13 seconds.



Atkinson advanced to the semi-final after a third place finish in the first round. She clocked 32.24 behind Rebecca Ajulu-Bushell of England, who won in 31.97.



Earlier, Atkinson failed to advance out of the first round of the 200-metre Individual Medley following a sixth place finish in two minutes 24.39 seconds.



The other two Jamaican swimmers, Victoria Hoo and Alexi Royal-Eatmon were outclassed in their events.



Hoo, two minutes 08.49 seconds, finished eighth and last in Heat 4 of the 200-metre freestyle women qualification, while Royal Eatmon, 31.09 seconds, was seventh in Heat 3 of the 50-metre butterfly women qualification.



Meanwhile, Jamaica’s netballers got their medal campaign off to a brilliant start by thrashing Caribbean rivals Trinidad and Tobago 76-36 in their opening Pool ‘A’ game.



Romelda Aiken led the way for the Sunshine Girls with 37 goals from 43 attempts, while Jhaniele Fowler had 20 from 23, captain Simone Forbes 11 from 13 and Anna-Kay Griffiths 7 from 11.



Also in Pool ‘A’ world champions Australia whipped Samoa 76-39.



In squash, Jamaica’s Bruce Burrowes lost his first round men’s single match to Danish Khan of Pakistan 3-0. Khan won 11-1, 11-5, 11-2.



Christopher Binnie was scheduled to play Yasir Butt, also of Pakistan in his opening match.



Jamaica are taking part in nine disciplines at the games, track and field, badminton, boxing, cycling, netball, shooting, squash, swimming and table tennis.