Jamaica’s last hope for a medal at the Federation of Pan American Squash Junior Championships has been sidelined. Chris Binnie was beaten in five sets by Alfredo Avila of Mexico in the third round. Binnie went down 3-9, 10-8, 9-10, 9-6, 9-5 in a 115 minute match.

The 14 nation Pan Am Junior Championships got underway on Monday, October 8, 2007 at the Liguanea Club in Kingston, Jamaica.  Jamaica’s under 19 champion Chris Binnie and Josh  Pinnard from Trinidad will head the charge from the region for the boys’ title whilst Brooke Burrowes, Lauren Mahfood and Leisa Robothom head the charge for the girls.

The 12th Special Olympics World Summer Games is now underway in Shanghai China and Barbados has registered its first set of medals. Through the heroics of Mario McAllister, ho placed first in the 50 meters and 100meters free style events in the pool. Elise Newman was also on the podium by gaining a bronze in the women’s 50 meter free event. Get more details here.

Trinidadian international Stern John opened and closed the scoring in the Southampton - West Bromwich Albion match to lift the team to a 3-2 win. John got the opening goal from a cross from an Inigo Idiakez in the 17th minute from 12 yards out. Southampton made it 2-0 through left back Rudi Skacel’s effort from 25 yards out. West Brom got back 2 goals through Andrade Teixeira and Robert Koren. John sealed it for Southampton, however, in the 64th minute after he got a touch on Dyer’s low cross to steer it into the back of the net. Get more on this story here.

It is being reported that Marion Jones admitted to family and friends that she used steroids prior to winning five medals at the 2000 Olympics. This could mean her being stripped of her medals. Pauline Davis-Thompson from the Bahamas and Tanya Lawrence from Jamaica are both Caribbean athletes that competed in events with Jones and came up second best to her. The medal strip could mean an upgrade of these athletes.

The Olympic qualifiers are now on for Women’s soccer in the region. The qualifiers thus far have yielded some rather interesting results, the most astounding ones being the Cuban victory over the British Virgin Islands - 21:0 and the Trinidad and Tobago win over St. Vincent and the Grenadines - 9:0. Get more of these fabulous results here.

And they’re off! Defending champions of the Winward Islands Cricket Tournament, Grenada, recorded their first win of the 2007 edition with a resounding win over Dominica. The result came just two days into the scheduled three day match at Sion Hill playing field. Dominica was asked to bat first and were bundled out for 88. On their first innings Grenada fared no better with a stand that lasted for only 84 runs. Dominica, however, was unable to capitalize, going for only 73 runs. The Grenadians ended on 78 for 3 to secure victory with a day and a session to spare.

Nigel Webb is the new JTTA national champion for men. Webb who seemed to always be second best in the competition this year pulled out all the stops to beat clubmate Phillip Drummond 11-2, 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6 in the men’s final.

Jamaica’s Asafa Powell is now nursing a hamstring injury coming out of the 200M at the Super Track and Field meet in Japan. Although having one of his usual explosive starts, Powell pulled up coming into the straight to give American J.J. Johnson a clear path to victory in 20.64s. Powell’s manager Paul Doyle said it may be a minor muscle tear:

“It’s a strain of some sort. He felt a pain in the upper hamstring and then it moved to the middle of the hamstring indicating there is some sort of muscle tear.”