Belize’s under 21 national football team returned today after playing round one of the UNCAF Nations Cup Tournament in Nicaragua. They didn’t win medals and in fact our team lost the game to Nicaragua with a final score of two to one. But we did win the opportunity to advance to round two of the Nations Cup Tournament. The Government Press Office met the team at the airport.
Team Captain,
“It was difficult for us because we are not used to playing on a synthetic field but we put our mind to the game and we managed to be more superior than them. It was very good, it was very excellent because they were a lot of coaches scouting many places. They liked how we play and so I just want to thank my team mates for this hard work that we did in Nicaragua.
The next tournament is going to be in July so we really have to prepare
for that Central American Games. We lost 2 to 1. We still qualified because we beat them 3 to 2.”
And while our football team didn’t return with medals, a pair of local canoe paddlers also returned today from the Ocean to Ocean Cayuco Canoe Race in Panama where they shattered the record by 9 minutes. They returned with a giant trophy and spoke to the Press Office at the airport.
Team Captain,
“Last year we participated and we didn’t win. We came in second last year and thank God we won this year. The difference was that we had a canoe and it was much lighter and faster.”
Hon. Elvin Penner, Minister of Sports
“They had a new canoe which was a much faster canoe and not only did they win the race but they broke all previous records by 9 minutes and I believe they are the first team that has not even one Panamanian or a nationalized Panamanian in the canoe. So they’ve only seen that water once before and like the guy said, it was a different kind of water because they started in the ocean actually with quite a bit of waves and then they actually go from the Atlantic entrance at the Panama Canal to the Pacific entrance. So it is an ocean to ocean race.”
The paddle race ran for three days and began in the ocean and ended in the Panama.
