With the absence of Cleveland Forde another Cleveland stepped up to win yesterday’s Courts 10km road race.
Perennial runner up of the calendar event, Cleveland Thomas out ran his spirited rivals to emerge victorious in wire- to-wire fashion in the fourth annual fixture.
The Running Brave Athletic Club standout led Trinidad and Tobago based Kelvin Johnson (33m:31s) and Tyshon Bentick (33m:35s) onto the podium to pocket the appetizing $100,000 first prize.
Not bad for 32 minutes of work. 32 minutes, 56.13 seconds to be exact for the event which started at Courts’ Main Street office, proceeded to the East Coast road near Conversation Tree and ended at the point of origin.
Dennis Horatio (34m: 21s) and Nathaniel Giddings (34m: 33s) finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Thomas along with Nathaniel Giddings, Winston Messenger and Larry Nicholas started off a fever pitch pace and established an immediate four-man break.
Messenger and Nicholas were hoverer dropped from the pace at the 3km mark where Johnson joined Thomas and Giddings.
The bare-footed Giddings fell off the scorching pace a km later as Thomas and Johnson upped the ante with every powerful stride.
The lead duo journeyed until a tireless Thomas changed gears again at Thomas and Lamaha streets, leaving a tiring Johnson who failed to respond in his wake.
Thomas then went on to cruise across the finish line in excess of 30 seconds ahead of Johnson.
While Thomas won the event for the first time, it was four for four for US-based Euleen Josiah-Tanner on the distaff side.
Tanner is turning the race into a one-woman show.
Since the event’s inception in 2011, she has always occupied the top spot, only thing that changes in the script is the names of the runners up.
Yesterday she grabbed gold in 38 minutes and 30 seconds, leading Andrea Foster (41m: 40s) and a fading Alika Morgan (42m: 57s) into the top three.
Matthew McKenzie (junior boys), Shantell Hinds (junior girls), Alisha Fortune (Masters Women), Ian Archibald (Masters Men 40-55 years) and Llewelyn Gardner (Masters Men 56 and above) were also in the winner’s row.
Notes: Staff members of Courts participated in a 3km run which is a spinoff of the main race. Forde who was at the finish line told this publication that chikungunya symptoms was the reason for his absence.
The organizers along with president of the AAG, Aubrey Hutson, deemed the event a success.
