The Athletics Association of Guyana’s (AAG) local organizing committee last Wednesday launched the fifth annual South American 10km Road Classic at Olympic House which will be held on Sunday.
At the launch, the AAG said that they had taken the initiative of allowing participants from territories throughout the Caribbean to compete in this year’s event.
Although this new addition may not correspond with the event’s name, it is expected that it will add to the exceedingly high level of competition while giving local athletes a chance to compete against international opposition here on home turf.
So far there have been more than 15 athletes who have confirmed participation from territories such as Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada, it was disclosed.
The local organizing committee said it had been working towards improving the quality of this event and, chairman of the committee, Claude Blackmore, disclosed that there will be four categories in this year’s race.
Apart from the traditional male and female open and international categories, there will be an upgraded junior category, two masters categories for males 40-49 and 50-59 years of age and a school team category, which will take the same format as the AAG team’s 10km held earlier this year.
The male and female open and international athletes will compete for the first place prize of US$1000 while US$600 will be offered for second, US$400 for third, US$250 for fourth and US$150 for fifth.
All of the above prizes will be accompanied by trophies for their respective positions.
Juniors will also be competing for prize money to accompany the usual trophies and with stakes as high as US$250 for first place, US$150 for second and US$100 for third, one can expect a very competitive race among the 16-20 age group junior athletes.
The entrance fee for juniors are G$300 while the masters and open locals will be charged a fee of $500. International competitors will have to pay $1000 to register for this event while all school teams can enter free of charge.
The AAG usually relies on the business community for the donation of prizes for some of the categories and have already amassed some of the prize money as well as trophies.
The event will begin at 16:00hrs from the Police Sports Ground Eve Leary, and proceed east along Barrack Street, south on Camp Road, west into Lamaha Street, north unto High Street, east along the Seawall Road south down Camp Road, east along Carifesta Avenue and along Rupert Craig East Coast highway, turn Liliendaal, west down Rupert Craig East Coast highway, onto Kitty Public Road, east into Thomas Lands south on Camp Road, east into Barrack Street, to end at the Police Sports Club Ground entrance.
