PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Guyana’s Cleveland Forde out-sprinted defending champion Richard Jones in 75-metre dash to the finish-line to win the 2009 Eastern Credit Union Granny Lucess 15k road race on Sunday.
More than 300 runners took part in the 21st edition of the event which had simultaneous starts Sunday morning – of the 15km starting at the Arima Velodrome in Arima, and the 5km road race beginning at the St Mary’s Children’s Home in Tacarigua.
Both Forde and local star Jones started the race positively in the early stages, setting the pace for the scores of runners.
Along the route, several runners attempted unsuccessfully to take the lead from the two men.
All, including former champion Pamenos Ballantyne, of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and local runner Curtis Cox, failed to get past the pair.
The deciding moment in the race came at the St Joseph bridge when the Forde made a break for the lead.
Jones, not wanting to surrender his title so easily, matched his move.
Forde was stronger at the finish and won in 48 minutes and 46 seconds, to claim the TT$6,000 (US$987) first prize.
He was just two seconds ahead of Jones, who finished in 48.48, a new personal best.
Third place in the event went to Ballantyne in 49:40 with fourth going to Kelvin Johnson (50:34). Curtis Cox was fifth in 52:28.
Shermin Lasaldo clocked one hour, three minutes, seven seconds to take top honours in the women’s category.
She was followed by Christine Regis, who was four minutes behind in 1:07.12.
Guyana’s Lionel D’Andrade clocked 15:56 to defend his title in the men’s 5km race with Jule La Rode (16:08) and Dennis Horatio (16:29) taking second and third place respectively.
Samantha Shukla was first in the women’s version of the event in 19:12 with Natoya Cudjoe second in 21:17.
