Local distance king Cleveland Forde is set to represent Guyana in stage two of the South American 10 kilometres road race today and is the only athlete that will run in all three stages.
Forde has already completed stage one in Panama and will conclude with stage three in Suriname on November 26.
It was disclosed that with sponsorship from his place of employment—the Guyana Defence Force (GDF)—Forde was able to travel to Panama to participate in the ninth edition of the event.
With regard to the second leg of the race today, Competitions Director of the AAG, Pamela Phillips, explained that plans are on stream.
She announced also that the monetary prizes will be US$1000, US$600, US$400, US$300 and US$200 for first, second, third, fourth and fifth places respectively.
The route for the event starts with one lap in the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary, then to Camp Street, Lamaha Street, King Street, Seawall Road, turn at Conversation Tree, Street, Kitty Public Road, Vlissengen Road, Thomas Lands to end after one lap in Eve Leary.
Keen rivalry is expected and the name of 5,000 metres gold medallist at the Inter-Guiana Games Nathaniel Giddings was mentioned.
President of the AAG, Colin Boyce, said there will be heightened security measures to disallow cyclists and motorcyclists from pacing athletes or helping them in any way along the course.
Stabroek Sport also questioned Boyce on the measures being taken to reduce the volume of traffic during the race since this caused problems for the athletes in the last two road races.
“Well, we have chosen to engage Brickdam and they have acknowledged it and they have looked at the possibility of managing traffic. We will have some more ranks on the route but it is still to be worked out and we’re taking it in because safety is a factor.
“I also believe once we could get rid of those cyclists it would cause less traffic buildup since they seem to ride all over during the race,” Boyce stated.
Meanwhile Boyce also announced that the AAG’s final event for 2011 will be the Banks DIH 5k road race on December 11.
