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Half As Good Still Better Than Most
(11 June 2000) - Trinidad and Tobago defeated defending champion Jamaica to win the knockout title as the West Indies Women's Cricket Federation concluded here Sunday. TnT had beaten St. Lucia, hosts and three time league champions, in the semifinal on Saturday. Jamaica received a bye to the final. So, St. Lucia - for the second year in a row - had to be satisfied with a single title.
No shame in that. In fact, we ought to be very proud of our three time champions (email your congratulations to wiwcf@slucia.com) and their indomitable leader Miss Verena Felicien. She was one of nine St. Lucians named to the 24-member West Indies squad after leading her team to an unbeaten record in the league.
Verena also led the bowling in this tournament with ten wickets from seven matches, and she was St. Lucia's leading batswoman. Joining her on the Windies squad is St. Lucia's most outstanding fielder, Pamela Alfred. Roselyn Emmanuel was adjudged the best wicketkeeper in the tournament. Nadine George, Eugena Gregg, Julietta Herman, Phillipa Thomas, Leona Vitalis and Nicole Yarde are the other St. Lucians on the West Indies women's squad, along with seven Trinidadians, two Jamaicans, two Vincentians, three Dominicans and a sole Grenadian.
Two days after the competition ended, the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development, Youth and Sports broke ground on the national cricket facility, located at Beausejour in Gros Islet. The $30 million facility is due to be completed in 2002. The National Lotteries Authority is picking up most of the tab for this project, and $4.5 million has already been spent.
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Lucian Relays Not Up To Par
(11 June 2000) - The St. Lucia team failed to achieve its main objective last weekend at the Frankie Colon Memorial track and field meet in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Nathan Justin, Ronald Promesse, Edmund Estephane and Damian Henville (in that order) completed the 4x100m relay in 40.85s, nearly half a second outside the national record, but more importantly nearly a second away from Olympic qualification.
A 4x400m team comprising, respectively, Miguel Lambert, Beryl Harris, Nigel Leonce and Jeremie Richardson ran that event in 3:12.72 - a little less than six seconds away from qualifying for the Sydney Games next September.
Individually, Promesse - a 25-year-old from Vieux Fort who has already qualified for the Olympics in the 100m and 200m dash - won the former event in 10.46s beating Gentry Bradley, Douglas Bignall and Jorge Richardson in a headwind-affected race. Lambert, who graduates from Georgetown University this year, clocked 1:52.2 to win the 800m. The run was neither close to his best nor close to Olympic standard.
The team may get the chance to try again shortly, as the Amateur Athletics Association has been invited to participate in Grenada's national championships at month end.
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Johnson Has An Up And Down Week
(11 June 2000) - In Ljubljana, Slovenia, Arizona graduate Dominic Johnson continued his excellent recovery from shoulder surgery, capturing the pole vault title at an international meet in record fashion. Johnson cleared 5.61m - a meet record for that event and centimetres away from his personal best. He failed in his attempts at 5.70m, which would have been a new St. Lucia national record.
Fabio Pizzolato of Italy could manage only 5.2m to come in second to Dominic at Ljubljana.
Wednesday night, Johnson traveled to Crete from his training base in Athens, Greece. The second stop on his European tour was not nearly as successful as the first. He failed to clear a height in a meet which featured some of the world's best pole vaulters. Undaunted, Johnson continues trying to get more consistent at big heights, in order for him to make his big Olympic bid in September.
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St. Lucian Women Win OECS TT Title
(12 June 2000) - The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Table Tennis Championships ended Sunday in St. George's, Grenada, and St. Lucia did well.
The home team won the men's events, the men's doubles and singles, but St. Lucia took the women's titles. For St. Lucia Charmaine Polius defeated compatriot Shermaine Hyacinth 21-8, 21-17 for the singles championship. Polius was named most valuable female player at the tournament.
In 2001 St. Lucia will host the 14th OECS tournament.
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Future Looks Bright For St. Lucian Number One
 (10 June 2000) - He was born with the New Year nineteen years ago, and the story goes that they wanted to name him Sean. Someone felt he ought to have a touch of nobility, so he became Sirsean. Before he attained his twentieth birthday, he would become the best tennis player at St. Mary's college, in St. Lucia, and then at Division III Averett College in Virginia. He would play the Davis Cup for St. Lucia, and he would excel.
In Honduras in early April, Sirsean led the national team to third place in their Davis Cup group. Might not sound very impressive, but team captain Trevor Hunte says the young man was just outstanding after joining the team from Virginia. Mind you, he did this without the benefit of real match experience in the US. He sat out his first semester at Averett due to NCAA regulations, but he says just practising against his teammates was great preparation. "They don't give you anything, you have to work hard for that number one spot." Going into the fall semester, he's confident of holding it down.
Thing is, the Averett Cougars are tough enough without 'Sean. Champions in the Dixie Conference, the Cougars believe the addition of their St. Lucian star will help them in the quest for honours in the South Region and the NCAA Tournament. Working this summer with coach Clifford Skakle at the St. Lucia Racquet Club, Sirsean is looking forward to showing off his brand-new arsenal. "Before I left [in January] I could really hurt you from the back. Now I can hurt you from anywhere on the court."
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Lucian Star For Celebrity Golf?
(16 June 2000) - Word is that St. Lucia's top golfer, nineteen-year-old Chris Taylor, could take part in this week's first Malik Sealy Memorial Celebrity Golf Tournament. Chris, who attends Coker College in South Carolina, was recently on vacation in the United Kingdom. He was scheduled to return just days before the tournament, which begins Thursday 22 at the St. Lucia Golf and Country Club.
Improving greatly during his time at Coker - and before that, the International Junior Golf Tour - Chris could mount a strong challenge for the inaugural Sealy championship. The competition for the St. Mary's College graduate will consist not in world-class golfers, but entertainers and basketballers. Tim Mangal, head professional at the Golf and Country Club, says the organisers will be looking to attract a number of the big names in golf for the 2001 tournament. Included might be as lofty a personality as world number one, American Tiger Woods.
That's next year, though. This year, Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves and the US Olympic team will be the big draw, along with Toronto Raptor and former New York Knickerbocker Charles Oakley. The most outstanding name from the world of entertainment is dancer Savion Glover, who's been to St. Lucia previously. If this were a halfcourt game, Taylor'd be in trouble, but on the links he's the best we've got, and he could have a chance to prove it this week.
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Squash 2000 Gets Underway In Earnest
(13 June 2000) - The 2000 version of the St. Lucia Squash Open promises to be another high quality display for this little-regarded sport, with some of the top players from the Caribbean, France and the United Kingdom returning to these shores a week from Sunday to take on the best from the host territory.
French number three Astrid Gamory, the defending women's titleist, and 1999 men's victor Alec Muller (number eight in France) are back to enjoy the hospitality of the St. Lucia Squash Association. Muller, especially, will relish the challenge of St. Lucia's top players, Charlie Sonson and Jason Noon.
The SLSA is scheduled to host the sixteen-team biennial Southern Caribbean Championships in August.
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Piton Beer Cricket Returns
(16 June 2000) - The National Cricket Association has announced the resumption of this year's Piton Beer Inter-District competition. The tournament semi-finals will be played Saturday and Sunday next at Gros Islet and Mon Repos.
The Gros Islet fixture promises to be quite exciting, with the highest-scoring team in this year's competition coming up against a Dennery team that has more than its fair share of firecrackers. Few, though, can match the explosiveness of John Eugene. Still only thirty, the former West Indies A middle order batsman has been providing some steel at the heart of the Gros Islet lineup. Two centuries already this season could have him rethinking his expressed decision not to make himself eligible for selection to the Windward Islands team. The defending champions appear to be more formidable than they were in their 1999 run, and that's trouble for Dennery.
More evenly matched are Central Castries and last year's losing finalists, Mon Repos. Central are seeking their fourth title in five years, but to get it they need to get through a very powerful, deep and youthful Mon Repos side. Garvin and Libert Serieux (no relation) will combine with guys like Richardis Joseph and cricketer of the year Gairy Mathurin to pose a very difficult challenge for Central.
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James Does Well On Cycling Trip
(15 June 2000) - Three St. Lucian cyclists traveled to Martinique recently for the Grand Prix Des Chomeurs 2000, taking part in a kilometre sprint and four road races over the course of five days.
In the sprint event, Mon Repos' Sylvester James was 27th, twelve minutes out of first place, with Chester Forde a further six minutes behind in 33rd. James improved his standing in the 98km road race, ending fourteenth and seven minutes behind the leader. In spite of sustaining a puncture, Forde was eighteenth. Sammy Joseph was thirtieth, marking the beginning of a hard trip for him.
Sylvester climbed into sixth place in the 100km road race, again seven minutes off the lead in mountainous terrain. Forde was thirteenth, and Joseph was forced to abandon his machine. The third road race was the best for the St. Lucians, with James in fourth place, just a minute behind the winner, and Forde in seventh, a further five minutes back. Battling to get into the top ten overall, James ended 12th in the 103km race, with Forde well off the pace in fourteenth.
At the end of the grueling journey, James was ninth, less than forty-three minutes away from the winner, Joaquin Caicedo Faria. Forde was thirteenth out of the thirty-nine riders who began the event.
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The Ghost, the 'Cop and the Shortman
 (14 June 2000) Following on from the recent Post-Independen ce Bodybuilding Classic, three muscle men have been selected to represent St. Lucia at the Eastern Caribbean Championship month in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. The %th edition of this event will take place 7-9 July, and St. Lucia will be aiming to maintain an excellent reputation at this premier regional event.
Leading the way for St. Lucia will be Post-Independence overall champion, "the Ghost" Raymond Daniel. Competing in the middleweight division, Daniel will return to regional action after a two-year absence. He'll be supported by a couple of talented lightweights in Lawrence "Robocop" Stevens and Alphonsus "Shortman" Joseph.
Robocop won the Post-Independence combined lightweight and bantamweight division, ahead of 1999 Eastern Caribbean bantamweight winner Joseph. Unfortunately for the veteran competitor the bantamweight division is not being contested this year. The Bodybuilding Association had hoped to add three more men to the squad, but these three experienced campaigners ought to bring glory to our island.
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Young Netballers Take The Limelight
(14 June 2000) - The 12th annual Inter-School netball competitions began Wednesday last with an opening ceremony at the Vigie Multi-Purpose Sports Complex. A record number of forty teams are involved in this year's tournaments at the under-sixteen and under-thirteen levels.
Alongside the tournaments themselves, organisers have re-introduced a radio series, simply but accurately entitled "Tips on the game of netball." The series incorporates a quiz segment where students can win various prizes.
Meanwhile, the National Association has named a final ten-member team for this year's Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Under-23 tournament, which begins in Grenada 30 June and continues through to 4 July.
St. Lucia was second in this tournament last year, with Michelle Rogers named as Most Valuable Centre Court Player. She won't be back - she's overage - but Shem Maxwell was the most accurate shooter last year, eventually going on to win the Netballer of the Year title, and she'll add some veteran leadership. Junior Netballer of the Year Sarah Alexander of Mon Repos is there as well.
Coach Liota Charlemagne and Netball Association president Fortuna Belrose are very confident about the 2000 edition of the U23 team. Both are confident that St. Lucia can take the title - as usual, their main rivals will be St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The full St. Lucia team reads as follows:
Shooters - Shem Maxwell, Helena St. Marie, Yolanda Mathurin
Centre court - Maura Quinlan, Betty Isidore, Jany Williams
Defense - Tessa Paul, Sarah Alexander, Nyasha Savory, Shana Reynolds
Reserves - Natalie Stanislaus, Natasha Charles
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"Guadeloupe Football Tour Was A Good Experience"
(13 June 2000) - Carson Miller, coach of the national under-17 football team, says that he's disappointed to have heard certain uninformed comments ahead of his team's recent trip to Guadeloupe. Speaking exclusively to St. Lucia Online, Miller expressed the opinion that local administrators have a lot of work to do with young footballers, but he added that in spite of some difficulties he was pleased with the Guadeloupe experience.
The team returned to St. Lucia on Tuesday, following their participation in the inaugural Inter-Caribbean Under-Seventeen tournament, featuring five territorial teams from the French Caribbean (including St. Lucia) and a club side from the host territory. The national side ended fifth, playing from a group of three including French Guiana and Guadeloupe. They lost one-nil to French Guiana and played to a scoreless draw with the hosts, before defeating the club side 2-0 in their third and final match.
Miller says that he was happy with the team's performance, but he was not pleased with the attitudes displayed by some of the men who were called up for the junior side. Addressing comments that St. Lucia may not have had their strongest team on the pitch, he pointed out that certain players were invited to national training and chose not to contribute. "It's an unfortunate thing that St. Lucians tend to speak without knowing what's going on," Miller opined, upset with unfounded charges of bias.
Shermari Hipppolyte and Lawrence St. Croix were the scorers in St. Lucia's lone victory; Miller explains that although the experience of this tournament was good for his young charges, footballers from St. Lucia are at a serious disadvantage when compared to their French Caribbean colleagues. Miller feels that in terms of technical ability, the boys from Guadeloupe, Martinique and Haiti are far more advanced than their St. Lucian counterparts. This, he says, is a situation that the Football Association will have to address, organizing more internationals for the junior team and generally paying more attention to their development from a much more tender age.
Given more experience at the international level, and with greater participation from a wider pool of players, Miller feels that St. Lucia can do itself proud when given such opportunities as this Caribbean Football Union-sanctioned event. "We have the talent, all we need to do is to instill the correct values in these men, so they can do well for St. Lucia."
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