AAG’s first cross-country meet Thomas finishes ahead of the pack

Nov 17, 2020 Sports

By Calvin Chapman in Linden

The open 10k race got off to a fast start. (Calvin Chapman photo)

Kaieteur News – The Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) kicked off their 2020-21 season last weekend with two cross-country meets on Sunday with one in Linden at the Bayrock Community Center ground, and the other in Berbice at the Esplande Ground in New Amsterdam.
At Bayrock ground, over 50 athletes registered to be part of the event and it was encouraging that after nine months of inactivity, athletes were still hungry for competition.
However, the event that had track and field athletes from six clubs inclusive of Upper Demerara, Christianburg/Wismar Secondary School (CWSS), Running Braves, Police Progressive Youth Club (PPYC), Guyana Defence Force and Titans, was used by coaches to assess were their athletes were in terms of condition and fitness.

Cleveland Thomas clocks his time after finishing way ahead of the pack in the 10k race. (Calvin Chapman)

Shaquka Tyrrell of CWSS won the girls’ 4k race.

CWSS coach Moses Pantlitz, in an invited comment with Kaieteur Sport, revealed that after many months of inactivity, some athletes have put on a lot of weight which is understandable due to the covid-19 pandemic and they will have to do a lot of work to get back to their level before the lockdown.
Johnny Gravesande; coach of CWSS, like Pantlitz, mentioned that he did all that he could’ve with his athletes to ensure that they maintained some form of fitness during the lockdown and noted that they had been training outdoors with strict social distancing protocols for a couple months now.
In Sunday’s feature race in the ‘mining town’, Cleveland ‘fish’ Thomas exhibited superior fitness to finish ahead of a star studded lineup that included the likes of Cleveland Forde and Winston Missingher.
Thomas finished in a time of 43minutes 08 seconds in the race that was contested around the outer circuit of the Bayrock ground which in a year’s time or preferably less should house the region’s first synthetic track.
Thomas was calmly ahead of Upper Demerara’s Ronnell Newton (43minutes 57seconds) who was followed by Missingher in third with a time of 44m 9s, Royston Fordyce in fourth and Forde all the way in fifth place.
The boys’ 6K race saw Courtly Babb crossing the line first with a time of 26m 07s with Omari Walcott in second and Odida Parkinson of Running Braves in third place.
The 16-19 years girls’ 4k event was won by Shaquka Tyrrell of CWSS Track Club in a time of 18m 53s, Atoya Harvey of second and Aaliyah Headley third.
The next event on the AAG’s Calendar is the South American 10k which will run on Sunday November 29th.

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