Local athletics coach Leslie Black, who coaches Alika Morgan yesterday reported that two Guyanese athletes outshone Caribbean long distance champion Pamenos Ballentyne over the week-end in Trinidad and Tobago.
Black, who has a number of athletes competing in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago told Stabroek Sport that at a over 5Km feature event held Sunday last , the Guyanese Kelvin Johnson and Lionel D’Andrade placed third and fourth behind two athletes from Kenya.
According to Black over 340 athletes registered for the Venture 5km race with Nicodemos Nanimadu placing first in a time of 14:37s and his countryman Surge Gasore, second, in a time of 14.42s. Johnson was third in a time of 14:45s and D’Andrade, fourth in 14:47s.
Home boy Curtis Cox finished fifth in a time of 15.01s
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Meanwhile, in the 5Km Tucker Valley trail run on Saturday, the Guyanese duo Johnson and D’Andrade destroyed the 165-member field that included St. Vincent and Caribbean champion Pamenos Ballantyne and last year’s second-place finisher in the South American 10K, Richard Jones of Trinidad and Tobago. Black said that Johnson recorded a time of 18:48s for that event followed by D’Andrade in 19:01s who managed to “pip” Jones (19:02s) into third place.
Ballantyne finished a distant sixth.
The race was run similar to that of the steeplechase event that is run at the Olympics with water and other obstacles over the course distance.
Black said that the athletes who have been in Trinidad for over eight weeks now should be returning home in October to take part in the first stage of the South American 10K race.
The first stage, he said, will take place in neighbouring Suriname with Guyana hosting the second leg and Panama finishing off the three-stage championship.
Local record-holder Cleveland Forde, who has a time of 14:07s in the 5km event is also scheduled to take part along with local road race queen Morgan.
