Gold Coast , Australia — Jamaica gained their first medal on the second day of competition at the 21st staging of the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Australia.

Once again it was Alia Atkinson, the darling of the pool, who delivered for the country when she won a silver medal in the women’s 50m breaststroke final Friday night.

Atkinson went into the final with the fastest time but, just like she did four years ago, finished in second spot, this time after leading the race and appearing to have the gold medal in the bag.

In an electrically charged atmosphere, Jamaica’s Sportswoman of the Year got off to a good start, with the same reaction time of 0.63 as the winner Sarah Vasey of England. She powered her way through the middle of the race but was unable to hang on as Vasey produced a late burst to swim by her in the final few metres and snatch the gold medal in 30.60 seconds. Atkinson finished in 30.76 seconds for silver and hometown favourite, Leiston Pickett of Australia took the bronze in 30.78 seconds.

The 29-year-old admitted to nerves ahead of the start of the race in the capacity-filled stadium of wildly cheering Aussies.

“I think I wasn’t as relaxed as I was in the semi-finals and I think because of that I jeopardised the race, going for speed instead of distance, so I wasn’t getting as far out per stroke as I was for the semi-finals and I think that just added on a little bit more time.”

She may have brought pressure to bear on herself which threw her off her race plan somewhat.

“I think the excitement of the occasion — it was like finals — gotta go gotta go, instead of thinking to relax and take it easy and it will all play out. It is not like freestyle or fly or backstroke where it’s all about tempo. Breaststroke you still have to keep the same rhythm and if you go too fast you start to spin, so you have to hold down the excitement — I did not,” she laughed.

“I’m happy. I mean I wanted it to be a gold considering I got silver four years ago, but, oh well,” she shrugged.

She will be competing in two more events, the 50m butterfly which is to keep her active ahead of the 100m breaststroke, where she is looking for another podium finish. For her, making it to the final of the 50m butterfly will be a good achievement.

Atkinson is hoping that this medal will bring inspiration to young swimmers in Jamaica and lead to a growth in the sport on the island.

“I am pretty excited to bring home another medal for Jamaica, it was really a good swim. I am excited about getting back on the podium again.

“Hopefully this will mean more swimmers in the future for Jamaica so we can have more than one event per day, because I think a couple of people would have made it in the 200m freestyle today and maybe the 50m freestyle as well. So hopefully in the future we can have more swimmers so we can have a team contingent for swimming, and not just me. Too much pressure on one person,”

She will be back in the pool today to contest the heats of the 50m butterfly event on day three of the “friendly games”.

— Dwayne Richards