– Junior cyclists win team time trial; dominate road race
By Emmerson Campbell
After out riding the Surinamese earlier in the day in the team time trials in the National Park, the local junior riders later took their talents to the open road and dominated their counterparts to retain their Inter Guiana Games (IGG) cycling title.
In the 60km (36 miles) road race which pedaled off yesterday at West Demerara from Nismes to Vergenoegen and returned to the starting line for the finish, the junior star riders were simply unstoppable.
15-year old Raul Leal led last year’s IGG gold medalist Raynauth Jeffrey and Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships gold medalist, Paul DeNobrega across the finish line to complete Guyana’s sweep of the medals.
Leal and Jeffrey, who smiled as they crossed the finish line inches apart, stopped the clock at one hour, 37 minutes and 19 seconds.
So convincing was the local cyclists’ performances that fourth place finisher Melvin Geigevlict (one hour,54 minutes and 33 seconds) from Suriname finished the event almost 18 minutes after Leal and Jeffrey crossed the line.
The only thing that did not go Guyana’s way was the mechanical failure that caused juvenile gold medalist at the Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships, Michael Anthony to exit the race.
Even on the distaff side Guyana’s two riders dominated the 24-mile event. Marica Dick sped off with the gold medal in one hour, 19 minutes and 39 seconds while Toshawna Doris copped the silver.
Surinamese, Leanza Oosthuzan was a distant third crossing the finish line in a time of one hour,27 minutes and 42 seconds, eight minutes after Dick.
The female 40km race started at Nismes, continued to Leonora and returned to Nismes for the finish.
Earlier in the day at the time trials, Guyana’s male team stopped the clock in 12 minutes and 17 in their six laps while the Surinamese team recorded 14 minutes and 42 seconds.
In the girl’s three-lap time trials, the local female’s time was eight minutes and four seconds while the Dutch girls recorded time was nine minutes and 31 seconds.
In an invited comment, Manager of the team and National Cycling Coach, Hassan Mohamed commended the local riders but also highlighted that their dominant performance was in no way surprising to him.
“The team riding was superb, I am very proud of their performance,” said Mohamed.
“The team’s performance is no surprise to me though, these guys learnt a lot from last year in Suriname and I will always continue to say that there is no substitute for training, these guys have been competing throughout the year.
“I am very happy with the team’s performance and the support of the president of the GCF, Cheryl Thompson,” he added.
Thompson echoed similar sentiments of Mohamed saying: “They rode like champions. They rode as a team and I would like to encourage them to keep Guyana’s flag flying high and continue to work as a team because team work will continue to give them success.”
Three sporting disciplines were contested here: volleyball, cycling and chess, while the second leg of the competition will be held in Suriname from November 9. Basketball, table tennis and football comprise the second half of the Games.
