If you are a fan of CrossFit, Zumba and the Strong Man competitions, then the place to be this weekend is the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) for the fifth staging of the Kares Fitness Expo.
With lucrative cash prizes up for grabs, the athletes are charged up and ready to bring their A-game to entertain their fans and earn bragging rights.
As customary, the annual fixture gets cracking today with the Cancer Awareness Glow Walk followed for Cancer Awareness which will be led by Guyana’s only licensed Zumba instructor, Noshavyah King.
The glow walk starts from the Genesis Fitness Express Gym on D’Urban street at 18:00hrs and concludes at the CASH where King and her team will lead a ‘zumba party’ to some of the latest soca hits.
Tomorrow, action starts at the CASH from 14:00hrs with the CrossFit events for the scaled competitors followed by the RX division for the elite featuring the nation’s fittest duo of Dillon Mahadeo and Delice Adonis.
One of the organizers of the event, Jordana Ramsey-Gonsalves stated that the event has grown over the years and highlighted that 35 athletes, many of which are females, will be part of the competition tomorrow.
The prize money has also taken a big leap.
The top five scaled athletes will pocket $150,000, $100,000, $75,000, $50,000 and $25,000 in that order. The remaining athletes will receive a participation prize of $10,000 each. In the RX division, the top team takes home $200,000. The second and third place teams will earn $150,000 and $100,000 respectively.
All remaining teams will get $50,000 apiece.
The top three athletes over the age of 30 will also receive $50,000, $30,000 and $25,000 each. There will also be a ‘Spirit of the Games’ award for a male and a female. They will each be rewarded with $25,000.
The expo will end with a Strong Man competition where one of the feats will be “deadlifting a truck.” Last year’s winner, Julio Sinclair is expected to return and be challenged by Guyana’s own Carlos Petterson-Griffith and Oryan Joseph and four athletes from Suriname.
The top three Strong Men will pocket $150,000, $125,000, and $100,000 in that order. The remaining men will receive participation prizes of $25,000 each.
There will also be crowd participation events for prizes.
Admission for today and tomorrow is $1000 and $500 respectively.
Sponsors include: Kares Engineering, Genesis Fitness Express, Ansa McAL, Fitness Express, Birkenstock Guyana, St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital and the National Sports Commission. Representatives of each of the sponsors noted that they were “happy to be associated with the event.”
Tickets can be bought at Fitness Express on Sheriff Street and the Genesis Fitness Express Gym. See you there. (Emmerson Campbell)
