Two-time Inter-Services Annual Athletic Championships (ISAAC) sprint champion Quinse Clarke and 2011 winner Rupert Perry are expected to battle to the end at the finals set for today at Camp Ayanganna.
The ISAAC has evolved into one of the country’s premier track and field competitions, becoming the event where the country’s top sprinters battle for supremacy and bragging rights.
Guyana’s leading sprinters Clarke, Perry, Patrick King and Winston George are all members of the disciplined forces and the event pits them against each other with each athlete’s team behind them.
Clarke won the title in 2009 and 2010 before surrendering it to Perry last year. Perry emerged through the ISAAC competition and became the 2010 national under-23 champion and then 2011 Senior National 100m and 200m champion. He also smashed the Inter-Services 100m and 200m records held by Clarke and broke his own record last year when he captured the sprint double at the Camp Ayanganna.
Although Clarke and Perry are both members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) track team, the competition between the two sprinters is fierce and they are going at each other’s necks for the ISAAC 100m title.
The GDF sponsored the two athletes’ six-month training stint at the Jamaica High Performance Centre earlier this year. The Guyana Police Force was determined not to be left behind and ensured that their leading quarter-miler George also benefited from the experience. There Clarke, Perry and George rubbed shoulders and trained alongside the world’s fastest man and Olympic champion Usain Bolt and reigning world 100m champion Yohan Blake at the Racers Track club.
Unfortunately all three athletes suffered injuries. George managed to shrug off his and represent Guyana at the London Olympic Games in August, while Clarke and Perry did not return to the track until late September.
Perry competed at the GDF Inter-Unit Track and Field Championships where he produced an emphatic win in 20.1 seconds in the 200m. However, a week later he lost a 100m race at the Guyana Police Force Gymkhana event to South American under-23 bronze medallists Chavez Ageday. Perry also beat George in that race. Clarke, however, who was recently promoted to sergeant, was side-lined with injuries during the competition. The ISAAC is his first competition since recovering.
Clarke, who medalled at the ALBA Games last year in Venezuela, comfortably won the Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) 100m heat in 10.9s ahead of defending champion Trevor Benn of the GPF. Clarke is favoured to relieve Benn of his Men’s NCO 100m title in today’s final. Apart from the men’s 100m and men’s NCO 100m, Clarke will only be competing in the relays.
On the other hand, Perry will be competing in the 100m and 200m, while George will be leading the GPF’s charge in the 100m, 200m and 400m.
King who clocked 10.1s to win the GDF Inter-Unit 100m, will also be competing in the 200m along with team-mate Akeem Stewart and in the 400m against George.
King led for most of the 400m race at ISAAC last year, before George, who also medalled at the ALBA Games, delivered a late surge during the final 40m of the race to claim the ISAAC 400m title. The fastest serviceman in the 100m, 200, and 400m will be determined during today’s finals.
An exciting contest is also expected to unfold in the women’s sprints as the GDF recently secured the services of National Junior Champion Letitia Myles to team up with Tiffany Smith and go against GPF’s Alita Moore and Leota Bobb.
