Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor

Referee Jones Kennedy holds Jamaica's Ricardo Smith's arm up after he defeated Cuba's Erislandi Lara (unseen) at the end of a Pan American 69 kg fight in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, yesterday. - ap

rio de janeiro, brazil:

Jamaica, guaranteed just one medal after 10 days of competition at the XV Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, will be looking to its strongest sport, track and field, to move up the medals table this week.

Welterweight Ricardo Smith who has not yet thrown a punch in the boxing tournament has advanced to the semi-finals of his division. Even if he is beaten he will be awarded a bronze medal. Victory will ensure at least a silver.

Big guns

Two of the country's big guns in female track and field arrived in the Games Village yesterday. National 100m hurdler Delloreen Ennis-London and Commonwealth Games 100 metres champion Sheri-Ann Brooks are in the Games Village. Jamaica's Brigitte Foster-Hylton won the 100m hurdles at the last Games in Santo Domingo and Ennis-London, one of the world's leading sprint hurdlers, should ensure back-to-back gold medals for Jamaica in the event later this week.

Peta-Gaye Dowdie who also flew into Brazil yesterday goes in the women's 100m heats today along with Tracey-Ann Rowe.

Among those in action this afternoon are national record holder Maurice Smith in the decathlon, Edino Steel and Leford Green in men's 400m heats, Jermaine Jackson and Anthony McGregor in the men's long jump preliminaries, Nickiesha Wilson and Shevon Stoddart in the women's 400m hurdles semi-finals and Xavier Brown and Jason Livermore in the men's 100m heats. National champion and record holder for the women's 800m, Kenia Sinclair, is not here to contest this event. Word from the Jamaican camp is that she is injured.

Five finals, including the women's hammer throw with Jamaica's Nicky Grant, will be decided at the Joao Havelange Stadium today.

First-ever win

Jamaica's female basketballers scored their first-ever win in women's competition at the Games yesterday, beating Mexico 69-46. The Jamaican team is, however, out of contention for a medal as they had a heart-breaking 58-46 loss to Canada on Saturday night. Brazil and Canada take the top-two spots in Group A and Jamaica will play-off for positions five to eight.

Centre Simone Edwards, Jamaica's best player at the Games, expressed her disappointment at the loss to Canada. Jamaica led 19-15, 28-22 and 39-35 after the first three quarters but Canada went on a 12-0 run early in the fourth and did not look back.

Tough Canadians

"We won the first three quarters and at the end the Canadians overcame us. It's very difficult The Canadian team had the advantage of having good players on the bench. Our point guard Nicole Louden injured her nose and played only five minutes," Edwards said.

Louden played 33 minutes in Jamaica's first game against Brazil. Edwards 12 points and nine rebounds and Erika Messam with 12 points were the leading players against Canada. Teresa Gabriel led the way for Canada with a game-high 17 points.

In yesterday's match, Jamaica led from the start and were up by 27 points midway the fourth quarter. Edwards again top-scored with 22 points while captain Vanessa Gidden got 12. The scores at the end of the first three quarters were 18-12, 32-22 and 54-33.

Swimmer Alia Atkinson placed eighth in the women's 200m breaststroke final won in a Games record two minutes 25.62 seconds by American Caitlin Leverenz. Canada's Annamay Pierse earned silver in 2:26.79 while another American took bronze in 2:28.20. Atkinson's time was 2:40.19.