Johnson and D’Andrade outdo Ballantyne

Two of Guyana’s premier male long distance athletes Kelvin Johnson and Lionel D’Andrade outdid St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Pamenos Ballentyne in the Ministry of Health seven-and-a-half mile run in Trinidad and Tobago, yesterday.

The tough terrain that included hills and flats was completed first by Johnson who ran a time of 44:20s with D’Andrade second in a time of 44:23s.

Ballantyne finished some distance behind in third place in a time of 47:52s. A total of 37 athletes participated in the event in Mayaro which was dominated by the Guyanese duo.

Speaking with Stabroek Sports yesterday D’Andrade said. “We decided to work out another strategy before the race to beat Ballantyne where we would come out hard and run at our pace. When the race started and we did this he (Ballantyne) could not catch us.”

Ballantyne had defeated the pair in a nine-mile run on Thursday and D’Andrade said yesterday that that course had too much hills.

Ballantyne won that race with Johnson and D’Andrade following in second and third places respectively.