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Eugene, Murray Start Recovery
 (20 January 2001)
- Thirty runs from St. Lucia's John Eugene and 25 from wicketkeeper and former captain Junior Murray (photo) rescued the Windward Islands on the opening day of their third-round Busta Cup first-class cricket encounter against Trinidad and Tobago, as two of the season's winless teams met at Arnos Vale Playing Field in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Eugene and Murray were two of the Windwards' best batsman last November as the sub-regional side lifted the Red Stripe Bowl limited overs title. Friday Murray lost his wicket to another former West Indian, Dinanath Ramnarine – one of his four victims on the day. Eugene fell to Mukesh Persad.
An unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 95 between the skipper, Rawl Lewis, and Deighton Butler continued the work started by Eugene and Murray. When rain ended play 16 overs early, Lewis was not out 48 and Butler on 34 with the Windwards on 205 for seven after winning the toss and choosing to bat. Lewis has batted for 119 minutes, hit three fours and a big six over mid-wicket off Persad to raise the 200 in what was to be the day's last over.
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England Cricketers For St. Lucia
(19 January 2001) - Preparations are proceeding apace for the sixth-round Busta Cup first-class cricket match between England's 'A' team and Windward Islands in St. Lucia at Mindoo Philip Park, 9-12 February.
National Cricket Association vice-president Trevor Philip says that a number of committees have been set up to see to the various arrangements for the match. The Ministries of Tourism and Sports will both be involved in providing hospitality to the Englishmen, who have won one match and drawn their second in this year's tournament.
Windwards, under the captaincy of former West Indies leg spinner Rawl Lewis, lost both their opening matches.
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Lucia Down Two In Fifa Ranks
(18 January 2001) - This year's first Fifa/Coca-Cola World Ranking was released this week, with St. Lucia down two spots to 137 in the world, as compared to Caribbean leaders Trinidad and Tobago, unchanged at 29. Jamaica lie at 46 (up two spots) and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are immediately ahead of St. Lucia in the Caribbean rankings, 127 in the world.
With a point total of just 275, St. Lucia is a long way behind TnT (691) and Jamaica (557) but within reach of SVG (303) depending on what happens with the islands' upcoming schedule of competition, including the Copa Caribe and Windward Islands tournament later this year.
There's no change at the top of the Fifa list: Brazil is still number one but the gap is closing between them and world and European champions France who are being closely challenged by Argentina on rung three.
Following the feverish activity seen last year with a record number of 1,042 matches there has been a considerable lull in recent days. With World Cup qualifying and Copa Caribe coming up, the rankings will be pretty volatile over the next few months.
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Ewan Trey In Washburn Win
 (18 January 2001) - Wednesday evening, Washburn University Ichabods whipped Central Missouri State, 101-61. The last time the Mules lost by 40 points was the 1983-84 season.
Ewan Auguste (photo), Washburn's senior St. Lucian forward, hit his second career three-pointer in the blowout victory. The Ichabods (11-3, 4-2 MIAA) looked like champions, shooting 59 percent (20 of 34) in the first half and 66 percent (21 of 32) in the second. They also out-rebounded CMSU 42-21, behind 7 boards from Auguste.
Ewan had 12 points on 5-6 shooting from the field, including that triple, in 21 minutes. Randolph Williams (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) tallied 18 points on 7-11 shooting.
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Tiger Declawed
 (17 January 2001) - 36-year-old St. Lucian lightweight boixer Benjamin 'the Tiger' Modeste (photo) recently traveled to England in a quest for the Commonwealth title. He left Barbados, where he lives and trains, Thursday last week.
Upon arrival in the United Kingdom, however, Tiger was told that the fight was off. Word from Tiger's Bajan promoter is that the television station responsible for broadcasting the bout pulled out at the last minute.
Modeste is preparing to defend his World Boxing Council Continental Americas title in late February at an as yet undisclosed venue. He's also been offered a fight for another title in early February.
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Gaston Wins Disorganised Run
(14 January 2001) - The St. Lucia Amateur Athletics Association held a cross-country run in Vieux Fort Sunday, the Association's first event for the year. John Gaston won the race. It wasn't a good start for the AAA, which failed to mark the course and several of the runners missed at least one checkpoint.
Following their fellow Roadbuster home, Victor Ledgers and Wayne St. Ange were second and third respectively. Another Roadbuster, Lucy Blondell was the first woman across the finish line.
Participation for this race was surprisingly strong, with some two dozen students from Entrepot Secondary and Rock Hall Senior Primary doing a good job under the tutelage of their respective teacher/coaches.
Times aren't available from the cross-country run. Following the race, the AAA's public relations officer was instructed not to talk to reporters. This, moments after an executive officer of the Association admitted that the race had not been well organised, The AAA has, however, promised that it will return to this route later this year for its final cross-country run of 2001.
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Dom Does Italian
 (14 January 2001) - Central American and Caribbean men's pole vault champion Dominic Johnson (photo) of St. Lucia will be traveling to Europe in early February. For the next two years, he'll be living in Formia, Italy, and training with Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov, the man who used to train world record holder and world champion Sergey Bubka.
Dominic, 26, got the opportunity through the International Olympic Committee. The IOC was impressed with the St. Lucian's performance at last year's Summer Olmpics in Sydney, sufficiently so that they got in touch with local authorities to make an offer to Dominic.
Many St. Lucians openly expressed their disappointment when Dominic cleared only a single height in Australia, even though he qualified for the Olympiad in the A class and did so comfortably months after shoulder surgery. Well, at least the IOC thinks he has potential.
The International Amateur Athletics Federation was involved as well, and it's likely that Dominic will be involved in IAAF events in Europe over the next few years. "Assuming I'm vaulting high, I'll get IAAF meets, and I'm jumping very well right now," remarks Dominic.
Sunday he competed for the first time since Sydney, at the North American Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada. There, he came up against Olympic champion Nick Hysong, silver medallist Lawrence Johnson, and Jeff Hartwig, the American pole vault record holder.
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Lucians Have Solid Indoor Opening
 (13 January 2001) - Zepherinus Joseph (photo) completed a personal best for the 3,000-metre run at Florida Intercollegiates. The meet, hosted by the University of Florida Gators, was the curtain raiser for the 2001 indoor campaign. Zepherinus' time (8:24.77) was not quite quick enough to earn him a gold medal, but he was beaten by .03 of a second. His coach at University of North Florida says Zepherinus could be on course for a sub-fourteen minute 5,000-metre run, but there's plenty of time 'til the outdoor season. Also at Gainesville, competing for University of Florida, Trinidadian freshman Candice Scott won the weight throw with a mark of 59-5 and also the shot put with a throw of 49-2.5. She provisionally qualified for the NCAA championships in both events. Her weight throw is good enough for third all-time at Florida and her shot put fifth all-time.
Also Saturday, in the New York Track and Field Invitational at the Armory Track and Field Center, St. Lucia's Dane Magloire kicked off his season with podium finishes in the long jump and triple jump. Dane, the reigning NCAA Division II outdoor long jump champion, was second (7.30m) in the New York long jump and third (15.46m) in the triple jump.
Meanwhile, at the Illinois Invitational hosted by the University of Illinois, Southwest Missouri State University ended third behind the host team and Indiana State. Running for SMSU, St. Lucia's Augustina Charles clocked 1:34.69 to finish third in the women's 600-metre run.
A week ago, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States duo at Coppin State College in Maryland did well in the Ohio State Invitational. Nickie Peters of St. Vincent and the Grenadines won the men's 600-metre run with a time of 1:40.00, St. Lucia's Beryl Harris came in third .17 of a second behind. Peters ended the men's mile in 4:15.04, good for second place.
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