Robin Persaud did it again.
Yesterday, the Carlton Wheelers’ club rider edged Team Coco’s Chris Holder and Team Alanis’ Paul Choo-Wee-Nam in a thrilling sprint finish to repeat as champion of the feature 35-lap event of the 10th annual Laparkan 11-race programme.
In cool, breezy conditions at the National Park, the former national captain raced to pole position in one hour, 17 minutes and 53 seconds, almost half of a minute faster than last year’s winning time (1h:18m:16s).
Besides the winner’s trophy, the evergreen 40 year-old also pocketed two sprint prizes in his fifth win of the season.
Two sprint prizes also went to Choo-Wee-Nam and fifth place finisher, Paul DeNobrega. Mark Harris (fourth) and Holder snared one each.
Alanzo Greaves outsprinted Team United’s Mario King to fill out the top six rewarding positions.
Former national cyclist, Enzo Matthews, Team United’s Mario King and Team Alanis’ captain, Paul Choo-Wee-Nam placed fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
The signature event rolled off at a fever pitch pace with the 14 starters all looking to seize the advantage. Several groups of riders went on to stage mini breaks but were eventually wheeled in by the chase peloton.
In the eighth lap however, the top four finishers changed gears and stretched their lead by each passing lap by riding as a team.
Team work was however thrown out the window when Choo-Wee-Nam rolled up the sprint with 200m to go.
Persaud and Holder followed but the former was able to power through for the narrow win.
Before the signature event, there were 10 other races.
Here is a summary of them:
Boys and Girls 12-14
Ammo Gomes,Toshwanna Doris, Ronella Samuels
Veterans Over 50
Linden Blackman
Vets Under 50
Jaikarran Sukhai, Ralph Williams, Kennard Lovell
Veterans Over 60
Monty Parris
Juveniles
Jamal John,Christopher Griffith, Jaleel Jackson
Mountain Bike
Adrian Sharma, Raphael Shepherd
BMX Boys 6-9
Jeremiah Harrison, Alex Leung, Christopher Goring
BMX Boys 9-12
Sherwin Sampson, Jeremiah Harrison, Alex Leung
BMX Boys 12-14
Sherwin Sampson, Thuran Garbarran
BMX Open
Adrian Sharma
At the completion of the programme, brief remarks were made by coordinator, Hassan Mohamed and representatives of Laparkan. (Emmerson Campbell)
