Six days after winning the National Sports Commission (NSC)sponsored 40-mile road race, Warren ‘40’ McKay took his talents to the inner circuit of the National Park yesterday where he won the feature 35-mile Invitational race, lapping all the starters except second place finisher Raynauth Jeffrey.
The event, which was again sponsored by the NSC as part of the Mashramani season, was the second ‘Teach Them Young’ 11-race programme for 2012, organised by national cycling coach Hassan Mohamed.
McKay won the event in one hour, 22 minutes, leading Jeffrey a junior rider, rapidly improving junior Raul Leal, Rastaff Oselmo, Robin Persaud and Alonzo Greaves as the top six of finishers respectively home.
McKay, and Jeffrey also took home the eight sprint prizes that were up for grabs with five going to Jeffrey while McKay took the remainder.
The third cycling event for 2012 saw Jeffrey, McKay and Orville Hinds breaking away from the rest of the 22 riders from as early as the eighth lap. The trio would become a duo as Jeffrey and McKay dropped Hinds one lap later.
With 12 laps to go, the field was divided into three pelotons with Jeffrey and McKay in the lead followed by the second bunch that included Greaves, Persaud, Leal, Hinds and Oselmo. Jeffrey and McKay had their own race as they would go on to lap the two bunches of riders.
The two riders were still together for their final lap but Mc Kay used his experience and superior sprinting ability to take event about two bicycle lengths ahead of the up and coming star Jeffrey.
Alfie Sonoram was the only rider that signed up for the 12-to-14-years, boys and girls, three-lap race. Nevertheless, he rode spiritedly and also received a prime prize for the event.
Yusuff Latiff, won the boys’ nine-to-12 years, three-lap race ahead of Shemar Dass and Jhubari Ming respectively while in the BMX boys 12 to 14 years, three-lap event, Adrian Sharma,Christopher Griffith and Ming were the top three finishers in that order.
Keith Fernandes rode off with the Veterans under-50, five–lap first place trophy and the prime prize in a time of 13 minutes and 11 seconds beating Kennard Lovell and Shameer Bashk who were second and third respectively.
Makel Diaz took top honours in the three-lap BMX boys’ Open race ahead of Cleveland King. Diaz and King were the only two starters for the event.
In the five-lap Veterans over-50 race, Kirkwood Kellman was first followed by Wilfred Thom and Lance Rose respectively.
Monty Parris won the Veterans over-60 years’ race ahead of Maurice Fagundes and Harry Lall. Davenand Bissoon won the juniors and juveniles 10-lap race in a time of 22 minutes and 55 seconds ahead of Kurt LaRose and Leal.
The race for Upright cyclists was won by Richard Charles with Mario King placing second and Kester Croal crossing the finish line third. Charles also won the sprint prize that was up for grabs. The two-lap BMX boys six-to-nine years race was won by Thuran Garbarran with brothers Ken and Isaiah Sahadeo pedaling in second and third respectively. At the prize giving ceremony, Mohammed thanked the NSC and the cyclists for participating in the meet and making the programme a successful one.
Mohamed also stated that the next events on his schedule would be the Forbes Burnham Memorial road race on February 19, another ‘Teach Them Young’ programme on February 25 and another 40-mile road race the following day.
