Paris, France – Jamaican judo athlete Ashley McKenzie is ready to steer the cost for his nation on the Olympic Video games when he faces Yemen’s Hesham Makabr within the elimination Spherical of 32 of the lads’s 60kg occasion. The match will happen on the Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris on Saturday and would be the seventh bout on Mat 2.
McKenzie, primarily based in the UK, is not any stranger to the Olympics, as this might be his fourth look. Nonetheless, this marks his first time competing for Jamaica. He made historical past final 12 months by profitable a bronze medal on the Central American and Caribbean Video games (CAC) in El Salvador, changing into the primary male Jamaican judoka to compete on the Olympics.
“I’m very honored to be right here to characterize Jamaica at my first Olympic Video games,” McKenzie said. “I’m prepared, my physique is prepared, and I really feel like I can do some nice issues at this Olympic Video games for Jamaica.”
McKenzie’s qualification is a major milestone for Jamaican judo, bringing unprecedented recognition and alternative for the game within the nation. His earlier expertise representing Nice Britain within the final two Olympic Video games provides to his credibility and units a brand new commonplace for Jamaican athletes in judo on the worldwide stage.
A number of different Caribbean athletes will start their Olympic journey
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Aside from McKenzie, a number of different Caribbean athletes will start their Olympic journey on Saturday, the primary day of competitors, with 14 gold medals up for grabs. Bermuda’s Dara Alizadeh would be the area’s first athlete to compete, collaborating within the males’s singles sculls heats in rowing. Alizadeh will contest warmth 4, whereas Cuba’s Reidy Cardona Blanco will compete in warmth 5.
In different occasions, Aruba’s Phillip Elhaje will take part within the 10m air pistol males’s qualification capturing, and Antigua and Barbuda’s Jadon Wuilliez will compete within the heats of the lads’s 100m breaststroke. Guyana’s Raekwon Noel will begin within the males’s 400m freestyle heats.
Suriname’s Soren Opti will participate within the males’s singles group play stage in badminton, whereas Chelsea Edghill of Guyana will contest the ladies’s singles preliminary spherical in desk tennis.
