It may not be at New York ’s famed marathon or the celebrated Millrose Games, but Guyanese star runner Alika Morgan stamped her mark and name at distance running in her first sojourn to the Big Apple.
The distance phenom bagged an impressive tripartite of wins in her select categories from three road races whilst in the USA for a month. A determined run in her final event was so emphatic, it prompted popular New York City road running announcer Tony Brinco to loudly assert at the presentation that “this outstanding young is a revelation who had an exciting win in last week’s Brooklyn bridge run.”
Accepting her champion female award, Morgan took the flatterings with her usual shyly convincing smile. “I could’ve had a better performance,” she said of her run – 18:55.02 (6:06 /m pace) in the Hope Runs Here 5k Run/Walk, two Saturdays ago in Massapequa , New York . She finished 8th overall from a field of 416 entrants, and Brinco noted it is a new women’s mark for the sophomore event.
The 2008 double Guyana national sports award champion was, first, dogged by a deluge of oddly chilly New York summer rain that speckled the race. Morgan had endured a one hour-plus early-morning train ride from Brooklyn which got her to the race venue mere minutes before race time. “Again, I had a lack of competition, here,” she noted in her deliberate drawl, after coming in almost a minute and a half before the next female runner.
That Long Island meet was a climatic déjà vu for the distance speedster as it shoveled similar experiences to her opening run in upstate New York on July 28th. There she surpassed the expectations of race organisers to win the women’s category and finish second overall in the Chubby Chase Series 10k Run in Geneva .
Morgan remarkably logged through the picturesque Seneca Lake front course in 19:02.44 (6:08 /m pace) for win though she spent close to six hours driving to the event after disembarking from her flight a few minutes prior.
She found reserved verve to stave off star collegian Cassie Goodman (19:04.63) for the top ladies crown in a race that featured 277 all-comers. The event was the original invite to the USA extended by the Finger Lakes Health Association to the 21-year old who traveled with her coach-manager Leslie Blacks. Morgan’s athletic feats, coupled with her exemplary work with underprivileged and sick children were prime factors for the call-up.
With her penchant or prime podium positions, the multiple national and regional distance champion ventured 267 miles back to New York City to covet the women’s crown in the Run Across the Brooklyn Bridge 5k event on August 5th. She did 19:01.26 (6:08 /m pace) for 11th among 981 male and female age-grouped entrants in the race which honors Sgt. Keith A. Ferguson, a S.W.A.T. officer who died in the line of duty.
‘We’re happy you graced us this year with your athletic talents, and we urge you encourage others,” advised the late sergeant’s mother, Sonia Cunningham who has a scholarship endowment supporting Criminal Justice studies at the University of Texas at Brownville and Texas Southmont College where she an Associate Professor of Nursing. “Sure! I will, and I plan on being back and doing better,” Morgan responded, collecting her trophy during the presentation in City Hall park.
Incidentally, Morgan and Black used the visit to prop scholarship interests for the 5-time Carifta Games medalist. “We had some discussions and there’s definite attention … (it) is just to have some kinks worked out,” Black indicated while making a courtesy call with his charge on longtime acquaintance, Brentnol Evans, Guyana’s Consul General to New York.
They visited head coach Michael Smartt at Essex County College in New Jersey where Morgan could gain a place at the JUCO school which turned past Guyanese stars like Onica Fraser, Marian Burnett, Neemah Payne, Michelle Vaughn and Dianne Munroe.
Additionally, Monroe College and Lindenwood University are also reviewing Morgan’s approach for scholarship consideration. The latter – a St. Charles , Missouri school – spoke with Morgan through Scott Roberts, the new head coach at the school where Kurt ‘Speedy’ Gibbons, Angilla Corlette and Andrew Smith starred at athletics.
“I just need to get to the next level; get steady and top, top competition to run in and I’ll get so much better, trust me,” the Guyanese distance phoenix assured.
After ‘running’ Guyana , the Caribbean and, now, New York , maybe the wider stage beckons for Morgan. Soon!
