By Emmerson Campbell
One day after winning the feature 35-mile Invitational race of the eighth annual Laparkan Holdings Limited sponsored ‘Teach Them Young’ Programme on the inner circuit of the National Park on Saturday, Robin Persaud took his talents to the open road yesterday to capture the Banks DIH Limited sponsored 50-mile road race.
Persaud won the event which was marred with controversy in one hour, 52 minutes and one second.
The race started at the Wales Police Station, proceeded to Bushy Park and ended at the Demerara Harbour Bridge.
Persaud, 37, led a star-studded line-up of Alonzo Greaves, Eric Sankar, Raul Leal, Junior Niles and Jude Bentley into the top six positions.
Along with copping the winner’s trophy, Persaud also won a sprint prize as did Bentley, Geron Williams, and Raymond Newton. National senior Road Race Champion, Orville Hinds was also the recipient of sprint prizes. He won three primes.
In a sprint for victory between Persaud and Greaves, the two national cyclists were involved in unsportsmanlike behavior which led to several arguments at the conclusion to the event.
Without about 300 metres Greaves and Persaud had a slim lead on the rest of the riders and a fierce sprint to line ensued. Greaves appeared to ride into the path of Persaud and was apparently pushed on the shoulder by Persaud to avoid a collision with a motorbike.
Greaves and Persaud have a well known rivalry and both cyclists have been disciplined in the past by the top brass of the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) for their actions.
At the conclusion of the race Hassan Mohamed, the national cycling coach, was adamant that local cyclists should be more disciplined as their unsportsmanlike actions can cause the lives of themselves as well as others
Mohamed added that he will have to put drastic measures in place if cyclists do not adhere to the rules.
The national cycling coach also stated that his next cycling event will be staged in the inner circuit of the National Park on Saturday morning.
Talim Shaw, Kennard Lovell and Davendra Ramnarine were the top three veterans while Leal, Raynauth Jeffrey and Linden’s Akeem Arthur were the top three junior finishers respectively.
The top three Upright finishers were Julio Melville, Hamzah Eastman and Nial Kingston in that order while Naomi Singh was the first female finisher. Walter Isaacs was the first over 60-year veteran finisher.
The event saw 52 riders including Singh facing the starter’s pistol.
