Distance `King’ Cleveland Forde ran a tactically sound race yesterday to come out on top of the second leg of the South American 10 kilometres road race which started at the Police Sport Club, Eve Leary.
Forde, who was second in the first leg held in Panama last Sunday, more than made up for his errors as he clocked 32:39.7s to finish ahead of Eliesio Miranda DaSilva of Brazil who clocked 32:53.2s in placing second.
Trinidadians Curtis Cox 32:58.3s and Richard Jones 33:24.8s were third and fourth while Guyana’s Kelvin Johnson 33:38.7s, running his first race on home since the start of the year came in fifth.
The race was competitive as the first five finishers quickly established a lead and settled comfortably ahead of their remaining competitors, dropping upstart junior athlete Nathaniel Giddings (eighth) and seasoned campaigners Dennis Horatio (sixth) and Cleveland Thomas (seventh) before the half way point at Conversation Tree.
The five tactically exchanged leads as the pace began to pick up turning the quintet into a quartet as the front runners lost Trinidad’s Jones.
Four soon became three as Forde, DaSilva and Cox stepped it up a notch leaving Johnson behind on Irving Street.
DaSilva then made the crucial mistake of making his move in front of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) main entrance (Forde’s place of employment). Forde countered with a move of his own as he slipped by the Brazilian to the applause of the soldiers lining the street.
He never relinquished the lead, crossing the finish line some 150 metres ahead of DaSilva.
“I wasn’t really looking at the time, I was looking at winning just like everybody else. No one was setting any sort of pace so I guess everyone was looking to run tactically… the conditions were a bit humid but I was never under any real pressure even though I thought it was a bit longer than a 10k and the Brazilian had a watch that tells you the distance so it was a bit longer,” Forde said afterwards.
He added:“I think this has to be one of my easiest wins. I decided to make my move in front of GDF just to test the waters to see if he would follow since he made his move but he didn’t and I took it from there… “I am also disappointed that the third leg was called off in Suriname because I was hoping to pick up another win there,” Forde told Stabroek Sport.
Meanwhile, the pace was too hot for local distance queen Alika Morgan as she seemingly suffered from leg cramps and dropped out of the race.
Brazilian Antonia Lins DaSilva who was never receiving any real challenge from any of the competitors easily clocked 38:26.5s in taking the top spot while overseas-based Guyanese Euleen Josiah-Tanner clocked 39:57.6s for second.
Trinidadians Ayana Celine Lestrade 40:56.6s and Kema McShine 42:26.3s finish third and fourth respectively while Ashanti Scott finished in fifth place with a time of 43:51.5s.
Nathaniel Giddings who finished eighth overall won the male junior category while two-time Carifta gold medalist Jevina Straker won the junior female category with a time of 46:13.9s.
Sprint queen Alisha Fortune racked up yet another female Masters’ win clocking 51:35.9s while Eon Archibald won the male category with a time of 39:48.6s.
Because the third leg of the ninth edition of the South American 10k was called off by Suriname, president of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) Colin Boyce, at the presentation ceremony said that that Banks DIH Limited will host a 5k event on December 11.
