Guyana may bypass Panama leg of SA 10K classic in future

-says AGG president Colin Boyce

President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Colin Boyce yesterday said that Guyana will be considering whether to send athletes to the Panama leg of the annual South American 10K classic following Sunday’s dilemma when  distance athlete Dennis Horatio inadvertently detoured from the unmarked route at the event.

Speaking with Stabroek Sport yesterday, Boyce said that the association was annoyed over the poor management of the meet which continues to be to the detriment of the performance of Guyanese athletes.

Colin Boyce

“My view is that we [Guyana] will not be attending that meet again because of the strange pattern of the officials there [in Panama], and at our next meeting we will be discussing that,” Bolyce told this newspaper yesterday.

“This was supposed to be an international event, there was supposed to be noticeable officials, by means of their attire, on the road, especially at the junctions, but there was none of that. And I’m made to understand that the road was not even marked,” Boyce added.

“In Guyana we normally take the athletes on a pre-race tour of the route so they know where they will have to be running, again this was not done,” he added.

The South American 10K Road Classic is a three-stage event held respectively in Guyana, Suriname and Panama.
Guyana was represented in the Panama phase for the first time last year through  Cleveland Forde.

Forde finished second in the race, citing a misunderstanding as to where the race was supposed to conclude, as the course was only explained to him in Spanish at the start of the race.

Dennis Horatio

This year Horatio, along with Forde, represented Guyana at the event, and this time it was Horatio who detoured from the unmarked route and  ended  up running almost twice the length of the race. Forde placed second (31:29s) behind Colombian Jason Gurieneer (30:36s).

Horatio stated that Forde was only able to follow the correct route because he trailed the Colombian, who understood the route. However Horatio in fourth was behind Brazilian Nelson Da Silva, which resulted in Horatio following suit when Da Silva made a wrong turn.

“Is only because the Colombian know the route and Cleveland follow him, that’s why he [Forde] get the right route. Me and the Brazilian, we were behind them but because of how the route situate we couldn’t see them, and we were coming back in and it had about a km [kilometre] and metres to go when the Brazilian make a wrong turn, to go back up to the turning point, and I follow him. We end up doing like almost two laps,” Horatio related.

“They didn’t have any lines marking the route, just water points and one outrider. The organizing was poor, there were no officers, you had to run with the traffic. I almost get knock down when a car speed past right next to me,” he added.

Taking all of that into consideration, Boyce stated that future non-attendance at the event was up for consideration, more so because Panama has never sent any athletes to attend any of the other two phases of the event in its eight-year existence.

Cleveland Forde

Horatio said he is upset over what happened to him, since he felt that he was in for a third place finish. He said too that he does not feel he will be considering future attendance at the event.

Forde who has been at home suffering from the flu since the team’s return from Panama on Monday night, said that despite his second place finish he felt that he did his best.

“The Colombian from the start of the race he went out. He was within sight all of the time but the gap kept increasing. I tried to catch up back somewhere around the seven kilometers mark but the gap was immense, it just didn’t work out as planned. But I ran to my best that day and he [Gurieneer] was simply the better athlete. The race was alright, the place was just a bit cold and the day favored him because he’s used to running in such weather,” Forde said.