‘Little Kenyan’ gunning for fifth Courts 10K title

Since the inception of the annual Court’s 10km event in 2011, Cleveland Forde has won the fixture four times.

The year he did not win (2014), he was forced to sit out due to chikungunya symptoms.

On Sunday, when the sixth edition of the flagship race is staged, the ‘Little Kenyan’ will be gunning for his fifth title.

Cleveland Forde
Cleveland Forde

“It will be a competitive race, but I plan on running to win” Forde told Stabroek Sport yesterday.

The distance ace who won last year’s race in 32 minutes and 45 seconds declined to predict a faster time this year stated “I’m not thinking about a time, I just plan to go out there and run my race.”

Forde who recently showed his class by easily winning the Massy 10k and finishing second in the Venture 5k in Trinidad, added that he will be using Sunday’s race as a dress rehearsal ahead of the first leg of the South American 10km event in Suriname next month.

“I want to see where I am at ahead of the South American series, so this will be a good warm up.”

Can Forde make it a handful of Court’s 10k titles?  The answer will be known on Sunday.

As customary, winners of the open male and female categories will pocket $100,000 each, while the immediate runners up will take home $75,000, $50,000, $30,000 and $20,000 respectively.

Sunday’s race which is expected to attract usual suspects, Winston Missigher, Cleveland Thomas, Alika Morgan, Andrea Fortune and Euleen Josiah-Tanner, will run off at 06:00hrs in front of Courts.

Athletes are urged to register at the Guyana Olympic Association headquarters in Kingston no later than tomorrow.