‘Mother Nature’ dealt a severe blow to the much anticipated third edition of the President’s/Jefford Track Classic as athletes were forced to compete on the waterlogged track of the Mackenzie Sports Club ground in Linden, last Sunday.
However, despite the heavy rainfall that stopped the action at various intervals, the atmosphere in the ground was electric as hundreds turned out to witness the meet that saw the Police Sports Club retaining their championship with an overall score of 313.5 points.
National Park placed second with 284 points while the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Upper Demerara were third and fourth with point totals of 225.5 and 129 respectively.
Overseas-based middle distance star and Linden’s own Marian Burnett ran a tactically sound race that brought the many in attendance to their feet when she sprinted to the finish over the final 80 metres to see the clock stopping at 5:05.60s in the 1500 metres women final.
Burnett seemed a bit rusty as she did not dominate the race until the final 80 metres that saw two time Carifta 1500 metre gold medalist Jevina Straker, who timed her sprint late, finishing second in 5:07.50s. Trinidadian Tonya Nero (5:07.80s) and Grenadian Kenisha Pascal (5:08.30s) came third and fourth respectively.
The conditions were not favourable for sprinting and the officials resorted to the final by time rule for the sprints (100, 200 and 400m) which states that the person with the fastest heat/preliminary time will be dubbed as the winner of the event.
However, the wet conditions failed to stop saw Alisha Fortune from smoking up the wet track.
The 37-year-old local sprint queen seemed unaffected by the harsh conditions as she dominated her opposition to claim an easy sprint double in the women’s 100 and 200 metres events.
Fortune clocked 12.20s to equal the games record set by Letitia Myles in the 100 metres while running 25.60s in the 200 metres.
The men’s 100 metres was very slow as three men in Chavez Ageday, Akeem Stewart and Terry Easton clocked in at 11.50s to share the top honors at the games.
The 400 metres junior star Stephan James lost his 400 metres dominance due to the ruling as he ran the slower of the two heats which saw Elton Bollers coming out on top with a time of 51.20s while James clocked 51.70s.
However, James ran away with the 200 metres in a time of 23.40s to defeat Bollers who came in with a time of 23.70s while Patrick King took third with a time of 23.90s.
Local distance king Cleveland Forde ran a very tactical 5000 metres as he lagged behind the first couple of laps before increasing his tempo to come out victorious in the final lap, clocking 16:35.80s. Nathaniel Giddings was second with a time of 16:43.40s while Tyshon Bentick was third with a time of 17:18.30s.
Forde then returned to capture the men’s 1500 metres in fine style, as he again used his experience to finish in a time of 4:15.70s overcoming Cleveland Thomas’ second place time of 4:20.80s.
Thomas shook off his 1500 metres loss to Forde to win the men’s 800 metres in impressive fashion, leading from start to end to record a time of 1:58.80s and defeat Mark London (2:00.30s) and Kevin Bayley.
Natasha Alder was the only athlete to break a record as she eclipsed her own record of 9.65m recording 10.19m in the shot putt. Alder also captured the women’s javelin throw with a distance 33.43m.
National Park United carried away five out of the six relay events that were contested which included the Women’s 4x100m, 4x400m and 800m sprint medley along with the men’s 4×400 and the 1500 sprint medley. GDF obstructed the clean sweep of the relays by winning the 4×100 metres men in a time of 46.90s.
