Morgan, Johnson satisfied with Antigua performance

Oct 07, 2008 Sports

–gear for South American 10k

Alika Morgan and Kelvin Johnson pose with their awards yesterday after returning from Antigua.

By Edison Jefford
Alika Morgan stated yesterday that winning in the Caribbean has become easy because of her commitment to training and preparation.

The local distance queen was speaking to Kaieteur Sport yesterday following her return from Antigua where she comfortably defended her Prime Minister’s Birthday 10k title over the weekend.

“To me, winning has become easy and all the training I have done is paying off. No one gets tired of winning. I feel that I am one of the top distance athletes in the Caribbean,” Morgan emphatically said.

She stated that she never stops training, even if it is in the off–season and according to the double Caricom 10k winner, consistent preparation is the main ingredient for her outstanding regional performances.

“I felt the same way as last year; it was great. I was training all the time for this race and the South American 10k,” the 18–year–old pointed out in her usually girlish smirk.

Arguably Guyana’s leading male distance runner, Cleveland Forde completed the clean sweep of the male and female titles for the country at the event. Forde could not be reached yesterday for a comment.

But his rival, Kelvin Johnson, who finished third in the race, told this newspaper that despite the roughness of the course and competitiveness, his objective of running a comfortable race was achieved.

“This was supposed to be my rest week but yet I managed to place in a very competitive race. My mind was just set on relaxing,” Johnson informed, adding that he had done 10 weeks of competitive running before.

Cleveland Forde

The seasoned campaigner said that the pace was not fast but he had felt a little tingling in one of his calf muscles, which forced him to reduce his pace since an injury would have cancelled his South American 10k ambitions.

“I just wanted to go run and relax. The pace was not all that ‘hot’ but I felt a little pain in my calves and I had to ease back,” Johnson said as if to imply that had he not done that he would have beaten Forde.

“Cleveland [Forde] came up to me and congratulated me after the race. He was surprised at the way I ran because before that race, he used to beat me bad,” the athlete admitted.

Meanwhile, Lionel D’Andrade had back–to–back victories last weekend in the National Insurance Board’s 5k run and Trinidad and Tobago Health Foundation 5k run respectively.

D’Andrade, who is set to return to Guyana on Friday for the trials for the first leg of the three–stage South American 10k race on Saturday, won in times of 15:39 and 15:26 in those two races in Trinidad.

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