By Tiadi Blair
The 55th annual Police Force Athletics competition continued at the Guyana Police Force Sports Ground, Eve Leary, yesterday with the finals of the field and middle distance events.
And, in a pulsating men’s 5000m which had the crowd on its feet, Gladwin James of `B’ Division held off Larry Josiah of Headquarters, and Desmond Chin of `A’ Division to win one of the most entertaining races of the day.
James sat comfortably on the shoulder of Josiah but upon realizing his opponent’s waning strength, took the lead.
From there onwards James maintained the lead until the end of the race which he won in a time of 18:11:78s.
The fading Josiah was second in a respectable time of 18:20:66s
while Desmond Chin trailed in third in 18:48:17s.
Earlier, the men’s and women’s triple jump finals got off to a great start.
Kendall Mentore of `B`Division, who had impressed in the 100m heats, running a time of 11:02s won the triple jump.
His best jump was on his second attempt where he registered a distance of 13.18m.
He was the only person to jump 13 metres.
Jason Critchlow of Headquarters was second with 12.73m, closely followed by Troy Williams also of Headquarters who jumped 12.56m.
Latoya Rodney of Headquarters came out on top in the women’s triple jump with a distance of 8.78m followed closely by Donna Ferguson with 8.55m and Sophiann Reece, 7.89m.
Jenella Jonas of `C’ Division prevailed in the Girls’ Youth Club 800m final while Samantha Williams of `A’ Division won the Women’s 800m final.
Kevin Bayley of Headquarters executed clever tactics to conquer the field in the 800m race finishing ahead of Ricardo Martin of `C’ Division and Kelvin Ceres of `B’ Division who were second and third respectively.
In a slow 200m race for the Girls Youth Club, Roxanne Rigby won in a time of 25:33s while Melika Francoise finished two seconds later for second place.
Orenica Haynes was third in 28:01s.
The athletics competition will conclude tomorrow with a few more track events and the highly anticipated relays.
Points Standings
International Competition
Guyana 216 points
Trinidad and Tobago 60
Barbados 46
Guyana Police Force (Local)
Head Quarters- 260
Division A- 157
Division B- 127
Division C- 46
