6th Kares Caribbean Fitness Challenge officially unveiled

Feb 01, 2020 Sports

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Over 4M in cash at stake; Guyanese preparing for Barbados, Suriname T&T and Canadian challenge

By Franklin Wilson

The National Park Tarmac will be the place to be on Sunday next (February 9th) when the 6th edition of the Kares Crossfit and Lotus Hardware Caribbean Fitness Challenge is contested with well over Four Million dollars in cash up for grabs.

Boasting the largest prizes for a single day event, this year’s fitness challenge will welcome some of the best exponents of the sport for neighbouring Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados as well as Canada; overall, thirty-one athletes have made the cut and will be contesting.
Defending male champion Dillon ‘The Beast’ Mahadeo will again be the athlete to beat as he goes after his fifth successive title while there would be a new female champion as 2019 winner, Suriname’s Ava Zalman will not be making the trip.
At the official unveiling of this year’s edition on Thursday evening last at Kares Crossfit located in Queenstown, Georgetown, Jordana Ramsay-Gonsalves, representative of Guyana Fitness Games, organisers of the event expressed gratitude to Kares Crossfit and Lotus Hardware for being a part of the event which continues to evolve noting that their sponsorship has certainly resulted in the sport going to another level.
Ms. Ramsay-Gonsalves stated that they are well aware of the challenges athletes face when it comes to adequate prize monies and were very pleased that the CEO of KaresCrossFit and Lotus Hardware, who is also a CrossFit athlete, acquiesced and welcomingly decided to increase all the cash prizes.
“These huge cash prizes are some of the largest cash prizes ever awarded in local sports, if not the largest. Male and female athletes will receive; 1st place $500,000, 2nd Place $400,000, 3rd Place $300,000, 4th

Place $200,000 and 5th Place $100,000. Every other athlete will be given a participation award of $15,000.
KaresCrossFit and Lotus Hardware would also like to recognise athletes over age 30. In this category we will have 1st place receiving $100,000, 2nd $75,000 and 3rd $50,000.”
Conscious that there must be continuity in the sport, organisers Guyana Fitness Games last year introduced a Teen Challenge segment which would again be part of the Fitness Games.
“This year we have 15 teens competing in one event, all in the under 17 category. Teen athletes will receive 1st place $30,000, 2nd place $25,000 and 3rd place $20,000.”
At the unveiling, Ansa McAl’s Lucozade and Icool Water representative, Triston Freeman said they are very pleased to be on board once again. “Over the years we have sponsored this event and we will continue to support this event and youth development in Guyana. I would like to wish the athletes a successful and safe competition.”
Chetram Bux who represented Berkinstock Guyana said it is a pleasure for his company to be part of the event.
“Berkinstock is extremely pleased to be a part of this exciting event once again. I know the last event was an astonishing success and I know this one will be even better and more exciting as there will be more athletes competing from various countries.
We will be giving away cash vouchers worth $15,000 to the winners of this competition to be redeemed at Berkinstock Guyana located at the newly opened Movie Town Shopping Mall. We are always excited to be a part of anything that relates to the quality of product we offer to the Guyana populace, in extension, fitness fans. I wish that all athletes competes safe and do their best.”
Another long time sponsor from the inception of the event, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, celebrating its 75th year in service to Guyana was represented by Mr. Terry Mohamed who said they will continue to provide quality care for the athletes as they have been doing over the years.
“We do other outreach exercises but crossfit has been one of our major events on a yearly basis. What we do at these games, we provide doctors, nurses and physiotherapists to assist our athletes. Before the event starts, we would normally do pre-checks of all our athletes, on their blood pressure, vital signs to make sure they are ok, record it and we monitor them throughout the activity.”
Another of the organisers, Jamie Mc Donald informed that there would be a total of five events on the day commencing with the first at 06:00hrs, this event is not for the public he stated as it is more athlete centered.
The remaining four events will lift off at 13:00hrs: “This is going to be basically a mix of gymnastics, weightlifting, and athletics sort of events. The big difference this year is we have Caribbean athletes coming in.”
Last year, Mc Donald said was a dry run with seven Surinamese competing and it went very well as they were competitive. The Dutch’ #1 athlete, like Mahadeo would be going to the 2020 Reebok CrossFit Games. It was also reported that the Bajan and Trini athletes are the best in their nations and the level of competition they’ll be bringing makes next Sunday’s event even the more exciting.
“What we are looking this year is a much higher caliber of competition so all of the events are going to be slightly harder than the year before and its going to be a little bit more grueling, a little bit more technical but also a lot more crowd friendly.”
Mc Donald also noted that the better the athletes get their movements become more entertaining for the fans. Tickets for next Sunday are on sale at KaresCrossfit in Queenstown, Genesis Fitness Gym on Durban Street, and Fitness Express on Sheriff Street at the cost of $1000, while children Under 10 would be free.
Partners and sponsors for the event are KaresCrossFit, Lotus Hardware, AnsaMcAl with their I Cool Water and Lucozade brands, MVP Sports, Berkinstock Guyana, Pollo Tropical, Star Party Rentals, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Fitness Express and Genesis Fitness Gym.

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