By William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)
BELIZE CITY, Wed. Sept. 17, 2025
The Belize Under-13 athletes enjoyed several victories at the 10th Central American Isthmus Council for Sports and Recreation (CODICADER) primary school level games at the Instituto Nicaraguense de Deportes (IND) multi-sports complex in Managua, Nicaragua, from last Wednesday to this Tuesday, September 10-16.
On Thursday, September 11, the Belize Elementary School volleyball girls won, 25-22, 32-30, over Panama; while the Belize Christian Academy (BCA) volleyball boys won, 25-11, 25-22, over Panama. On Friday, the BCA boys won, 25-22, 8-25, 15-6, over Costa Rica; while the Belize Elementary girls lost, 4-25, 25-7, 2-15, against Costa Rica. On Saturday, the BES girls lost, 14-25, 20-25, vs Guatemala; while the BCA boys also lost, 14-25, 19-25, against Guatemala. Thus, both teams did not qualify for Sunday’s semifinals.
On Monday, September 15, the BES girls won the 5th place match, 25-21, 6-25, 16-14, over Panama. The BCA boys also dominated Panama, 25-12, 25-7, to win 5th place. The Nicaragua girls won the gold, 2-1, over Honduras; while the “chapinas” girls prevailed, 2-1, over the “ticas” for the bronze. The Guatemalan (“chapinas”) boys won the gold, 2-0, over Costa Rica (“ticas”); while El Salvador boys took the bronze, 2-1, over Nicaragua.
Last Friday, Belize’s U-13 football boys came to a draw, 1-1, with Costa Rica in their first match, when J’Wayne Wiltshire scored for Belize; while the Belize U-13 girls lost, 0-1, to Costa Rica. On Saturday, the Belize boys won, 1-0, over Panama, when Zoaylem Jones scored the winning goal. In the female game, Roxannie Juarez and Emira Fernandez scored for Belize in their 2-3 loss to Panama.
On Sunday, the Belize football girls lost, 1-2, to El Salvador in a penalty shootout; while the Belize boys lost, 0-2, to Honduras in the semifinals. The Belize boys dominated Costa Rica, 3-0, in the bronze medal match for 3rd place on Monday morning, led by Zoaylem Jones’ brace, after Zayden Brown had scored the first goal.
The Panama football girls won the bronze medal, 3-2, over Honduras; while the Costa Rica girls won the gold, 4-3, over Nicaragua. The Honduras’ football boys won the gold medal, 5-0, over El Salvador.
The track and field competition was a team event, in which the Belize U-13 athletes tied for 3rd place with Guatemala with 17 pts each on the first day, after competing in running relays over hurdles, triple jump, baseball throws, and slalom sprints. Belize fell to 6th place when they scored only 10 pts in the 4th round, which featured consecutive long jumps by the entire team, running relays, javelin throws and long distance running. Nicaragua won the gold, tallying 51 pts, Honduras won the silver with 39 pts, and Guatemala took the bronze with 35 pts.
The games also featured competitions in mini-basketball, gymnastics, swimming and table tennis, but Belize did not participate in these sports.
The Belize contingent returned home on Wednesday after the closing ceremonies on Tuesday evening, September 16.
