Kelvin Johnson and Alika Morgan of the Rising Stars Track Club, dominated the Open category to secure unchallenged victories in the Athletics Association of Guyana’s (AAG) national cross country 5km race at the Kuru Kuru trail yesterday.
The event, which was exclusively sponsored by Woodpecker Products, Ltd., saw Johnson effortlessly completing the course in 18 minutes 29 seconds, more than two minutes ahead of his closest challenger, Larry Josiah, of the Progressive Youth Club Police.
Johnson took control of the race after the first 400m and never looked back.
He paced himself during the first part of the course, which was the road entering the Kuru Kuru College, and then dropped all followers one by one as he entered the sandy trail.
“It was a real nice trail and I comfortably cruised through, because there was no sun beating down on me while I was running,” he said.
Josiah came in second in a time of 20:46s while club-mate Kiev Chesney placed third in his first event as a senior competitor, crossing the line in 21:33s.
Morgan, who won the female category and placed sixth overall, crossed the line in 21:51s ahead of club-mate Janella Jonas, who crossed the line in 24:46s.
Oslyn Collins of the Progressive Youth Club Police, placed third in the women’s Open category with a time of 26:07s.
In the male under-20 category, 2007 Pan American and South American junior participant, Tyshon Bentick of Upper Demerara, crossed the line first in a time of 21:47s, barely beating Melanic James (21:49) of the YMCA Track Club.
Anthony Lyttle of Silver Bullets followed in third place with a time of 22:34s.
Although this year’s field consisted of more than 50 athletes, it lacked some of the seasoned campaigners such as defending champion Lionel D’ Anrade and last year’s runner up, Denis Horatio.
This year’s event did, however, consist of a large number of junior participants and President of the AAG, Claude Blackmore, commended them for their participation.
First to third place winners in each category were awarded trophies compliments of Woodpecker Products.
The next event on the AAG calendar is the first developmental meet which is planned for February 3 at the Police Sports Club Ground, Eve Leary.
