The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) tumbled five records on their way to dethroning the Guyana Police Force (GPF) at the 2011 Joint Services Championships at the GDF ground, Camp Ayanganna yesterday.
GDF narrowly defeated their joint services compatriots amassing 542 points to walk away with the championship.
GPF finished on 540 points,the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) 124 points and the Guyana Prison Service, 51 points to cap off their usual fourth place finish.
Distance king of the GDF, Cleveland Forde, was the star of the day picking up the male champion athlete title.
He also broke both the 800 and 1500 metres record at the championships.
Forde clocked 1:54.3s in the 800 metres erasing the old mark of 1:56s after clocking 4:04.9s in the 1500 metres to rewrite the old mark of 4:20.4s.
The 800 metres win for Forde also gave him a distance triple with Dennis Horatio 1:56.6s and Trevor Scotland 1:57.9s giving Forde a run for his money.
The race was so intense and thrilling that it left Scotland dehydrated which caused him to take saline after the event.
Speaking with Stabroek Sport after his revenge win over Horatio in the 800 metres, Forde said:“It was a good race, I went out there and executed my plan which was to go out and stay behind the person in front, I got boxed in a bit but it worked in my favour… it’s a good feeling to break the records but it will sink in after we win the championships,” Forde stated.
GDF’s Rupert Perry lived up to the hype of being senior national sprint champion as he captured a sprint double while breaking both the 100 and 200 metres records.
Perry lowered the old mark of 10.3s in the 100 metres to 10.1s while breaking his own record of 20.8s in the 200 metres reducing it to 20.3s
“Well I’m really proud of my performances; I went into the championships very confident and executed my strategies. From here I’m just going to work on getting a scholarship because I know it’s hard to move forward in Guyana and I want to make my country proud,” Perry concluded.
While GPF’s Winston George was quiet in both the 100 and 200 metres finishing fourth and third respectively in both events, the 400 metres specialist produced a phenomenal performance in his pet event while breaking the old record of 49.3s.
George surged past Leslain Baird 48.8s and Patrick King 49.0s of GDF who finished second and third respectively in the final 50 metres lowering the record to 48.4s.
GDF’s Baird then broke the men’s javelin record as he threw 57.52m to demolish the old record set by him last year.
On the distaff side, Nadine Rodrigues of GPF returned to glory as she captured a sprint double, claiming the 100 and 200 metres. Rodrigues also lowered the 200 metres record at the championship to 24.9s.
The old record stood at 25.5s.
Rodrigues then returned in the 400 metres but was unable to complete the sprint triple as she lost out to Tiffany Smith of the GDF who clocked 1:00.9s for the top spot while Rodrigues clocked 1:01.3s.
Janella Jonas of the GPF also broke a record as she lowered the 1500 metres record from 5:14.4s to 5:08.9s. Jonas also captured the 800 metres event in a time of 2:30.6s to claim a distance double.
Meanwhile, female athlete of the year, Natasha Alder, walked away with the female champion athlete trophy as she captured a field triple by winning the javelin yesterday with a distance of 39.85 metres.
Relay action saw the Police women dominating as they won both the 4×100 and 4×400 metres relays.
However, the Police men were unable to duplicate those performances as they lost to the GDF men in the 4×100 metres while they won the 4×400 metres event.
