Athletes Compete Across Various Disciplines in Weekend Sports

Good evening, I am Paul Lopez with this week’s installment of Sports Monday. We have plenty to dive into from the weekend in sports, so let’s get right to it. We begin tonight’s coverage with an overview of the Belize City Council’s Third Annual Triathlon hosted on Sunday. Our cameras were out at sunrise to capture the sights and sounds.

 

Let’s look at some of our top performers for the day. In the Men’s Elite Category, Jordan Santos took home the gold medal with an impressive fight to the top of the podium. He was followed by Mauro Cucul in second and Kent “Bob” Gabourel in third place. The Women’s Elite Category saw two athletes cross the finish line, Bobby Usher in first place and Jane Usher in second. As for the Open Relay Elite Category, the gold medal went to the strongest trio on the field that morning, Mauro Cucul, Gregory Lovell and Christoper Broaster, while the second strongest team, Deon Cuz, Darien Anderson and Ardele Avila took home silver, leaving Juan Dussan, Roque Matus and Jesus Contreras with a still notable and impressive bronze medal.

This year’s competition also saw a Corporate Category in which members of the Belize City Council participated. Deputy Mayor Eluide Miller, Councilor Evan Thompson and Councilor Sherwin Garcia secured gold as the only corporate team to cross the finish line. You can check out the Belize City Council’s Facebook page for information on the field of participants and how the ranked.

 

Derrick “Young Phenom” Chavarria has once again put Belize on the map with yet another outstanding regional cycling performance. Last week, Chavarria competed in the La Vuelta International a Chiriqui Tour in Panama, along with two other Belizean cyclists. And, after days of competition in the tour, saw close to a hundred riders compete from a dozen nations, Chavarria secured a silver medal finish in the Under Twenty-Three Category and an impressive sixth place finish overall, outplacing the 2024 Cross Country Champion, Honduran Luis Lopez who finished in eight place.

 

And, while Chavarria put on an impressive showing, the same cannot be said for the Belize Senior Women’s National Team. They played against Haiti on Sunday night inside the FFB Stadium. And though they fought hard, team Belize fell to Haiti nine goals to zero. Yes, you heard that right, team Haiti scored close to a dozen goals. The official stats shows that Haiti outperformed Belize in every area. They had seventy-five percent of the possessions, made twenty-one shots, eleven on target, while Belize only made two shots, one on target. A release from the Football Federation of Belize says Haiti is one of the fastest rising teams in world football, having defeated Mexico, Chile, Cuba and others. The federation is urging fans to ease up on the criticism, but after Sunday’s match, many say the result speaks for itself.

 

And speaking of football, Belize can rest its hope on the up-and-coming stars participating in the Anthony Mahler Mundialito Tournament. This weekend saw some riveting showdowns at the Berger Field. In one match, Belize United took on KP Strikers in a match that ended with ten goals to zero. Belize United secured the victory in that one, with Milton Garcia scoring four of the ten goals. Another match saw Yabra FC take on Reality Youths. That one ended two goals to zero in favor of Yabra FC, with goals scored by Kyrone Martinez and Tyrone Guy. The tournament will continue next weekend.

 

And finally, for tonight, the Belize Table Tennis Association continues to develop a strong following around the discipline in the country. On Sunday, the association held doubles tournament that saw eight teams compete. In the spirit of fairness, the country’s top eight players were paired with the bottom eight players in what it described as a “luck of the draw” method. The competition was fierce and exciting, with each team trying to capitalize on its strengths and the weaknesses of other teams. In the end, a pair of females emerged as the victors, having battled their way the males and mixed double teams. The champions of the tournament are Sariah Martin and Alina Blair. The silver medal went to Gustavo Dominquez and Nelson Contreras. The bronze medal placement was shared by two teams, Sofia Melgar and Fabio Contreras and Ellie Chang and Alexander Giron.

 

Well folks, that is all we have for you in tonight’s coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.