A big upset occurred yesterday at the National Park during the 35-lap feature cycle race when 14-year-old Christopher Holder defeated reigning ‘champ’ Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams who managed a third place finish. The race winner was timed at 1 hour, 24 minutes, 21 seconds.
“I entered the race feeling very excited and I knew that I would have won,” Holder told Stabroek Sport yesterday.
Holder has been riding for three years and this is the first feature race that he has ever won in the National Park. The young rider has copped for himself wins in all the for 12-14-year-olds races and a few juveniles.
The schoolboys’ and novices’ (35 laps) feature race started off with 18 cyclists but 12 dropped out. Coming in behind 1st place winner Holder was Shane Boodhram (2nd place), Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams (3rd place), John Charles (4th place), Alonzo Greaves (5th place) and Jaikaran Sookhai (6th).
Meanwhile, in the 12-14 years boys’ BMX race Neil Reece copped first place. In the veterans’ over-45 years Monty Parris took first place while second and third went to Maurice Fagundes and Bill Figueiro respectively.
In the juveniles (10 laps) Christopher Holder took the first place before going on to win the feature 35-lap event. Second and third respectively in the 10 laps were Geron Williams and Neil Reece.
The three winners for upright cyclists (5 laps) were Kester Croal (1st place), Rodrick De Souza (2nd place) and Alvin Persaud (3rd place), while Zayd Baksh (1st place), Kareem Mc Lean (2nd place) and Rawle Mc Lean (3rd place) were the top finishers in the BMX boys’ 6-9 years (2 laps) race. The winners of the BMX boys’ 9-12 years race were Andy Freeman (1st place), Brandon Baker (2nd place) and Teon Joseph (3rd place) and in the 12-14 years category were Jonathan Fagundes (1st place), Asif Shaw (2nd place) and Kevin Edwards (3rd place).
In the BMX open were Fagundes (1st place), Walter Grant Stewart (2nd place) and Kevin Edwards (3rd place) and Ashley Anthony won the BMX girls’ 6-12 years. In the under-45 years race Ben Yhap took first place while Beresford Bookie finished second. The winners were presented with trophies by National Sport Commission (NSC) officials.
NSC cycling coach Hassan Mohamed in the presentation segment expressed his thanks to all the cyclists who participated in the day’s events.
“Today I am very happy to have overseas-based 79-year- old former national cycling champion Bill Fuigera with us,” said Mohamed.
Mohamed in his closing statement encouraged parents to bring out their young children to participate in his training programme. He added that enhancement of the National Park facilities is currently underway.
