Latest update January 23rd, 2025 7:40 AM
Trinidad taught Guyana a lesson in team-racing
-Forde skilfully used experience to survive
By Edison Jefford
The Trinidadians exposed a pervasive weakness among Guyana’s distance athletes on Sunday at the IAAF South American 10km Road Race that, if not seriously addressed, threatens to prevent them from achieving the regional success they can.
Trinidad and Tobago had six male representatives in the race with half of them, namely Richard Jones, Matthew Hagley and Curtis Cox, finishing between second and fourth respectively getting US $600, $400 and $300 for their placement in the race.
Cleveland Forde won the race and received US$1000 with Dennis Horatio, who finished sixth in the overall line-up behind Nathaniel Giddings, cashing in on US$200 for fifth because Giddings
Trinidad and Tobago’s Curtis Cox hangs on to the lead with less than 1km left in the race along Thomas Road with Guyana’s Cleveland Forde battling among the other Trinidadians, Matthew Hagley and Richard Jones behind.
competed in the Junior category, which he won convincingly.
The result of the top five in the international male race would therefore indicate that Trinidadians dominated with three athletes among the cash prizes, compared to two from Guyana. It was only so because Trinidad raced as a team as opposed to Guyana.
Giddings had jumped out to an early lead that he sustained when Cox joined him around the 7km mark; at this point in the race and with Giddings exuding pace as is the role of a ‘race-rabbit’, the contest was well poised with Dennis Horatio, Cleveland Thomas and Cleveland Forde among the Trinidadians in a head-to-head showdown along the Kitty Public Road.
It is at this stage that the Guyanese athletes needed to independently, but yet collectively decide that to break up the Trinidadian gang they needed to race as a team and implement a strategy that could have probably produced more top five finishers for Guyana.
Instead, the Guyanese allowed the Trinidadians to do the thinking in the race. Jones, who is not a stranger to distance running, sensed that all was not well with Forde, who admitted to a thigh and abdomen injury after the race, dropped his pace and allowed his countryman, Cox to get away on about a 50m lead when they turned onto Vlissingen Road on their way back to the finish.
Forde could not have gone with a tougher pace because of his pain, but none of the other athletes had picked up Jones’ tactic. Forde bought his time, used his experience, and allowed Cox within striking distance, knowing his finishing speed was superior to the Trinidadians.
But when Jones dropped the pace of the chase-pack, it was an opportune instance for a Guyanese collective effort. However, none of the athletes except Forde upped the ante and pressure, which in effect allowed the Trinidadians to dictate the finishing pace and result. The Trinidadian tactics was similar to what the distance-running savvy Kenyans implement internationally and it definitely separated the Trinidadian nous in the race from the Guyanese.
Had it not been for the closing speed of Forde, Guyana would have been in the cellar positions of the top five in the race. Forde could have received much more assistance from especially Thomas and Horatio, who would have placed better as a result. Both athletes were visibly still strong after the race, which meant that they had more left in their reserves.
Giddings’ performance, toppling both Thomas and Horatio, was remarkable for a junior athlete; he did his work in the race and got his reward: the top prize among the juniors, a top five placing and his best performance in an international calendar event.
Forde gave the impressive crowd that came out to see the race enough to cheer about; however, it could have been much more resounding with more local placements in the top five; the women’s race tells its own story with only Ashanti Scott among the prizes for Guyana with her third place finish. Sensible team-racing tactics will solve the local distance running problems.
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