Runner collapses and dies near finish line during Tobago Marathon

A par­tic­i­pant in the Sea to Sea Marathon col­lapsed and died near the fin­ish line dur­ing the com­pe­ti­tion this morn­ing. The race com­menced at Good­wood in To­ba­go east and end­ed at Lam­beau in To­ba­go west

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, around 7.20 am, Andy Phillip, 48, of Cane Farm Road, Trinci­ty, an op­er­a­tor at PCS Ni­tro­gen at Point Lisas, col­lapsed in the vicin­i­ty of the Lam­beau Fish­ing De­pot.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands he was tak­en to the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal by Com­mu­ni­ty Emer­gency Re­sponse Team CERT, where at­tempts made by doc­tors to re­sus­ci­tate him failed. He was pro­nounced dead around 7.53 am.

Phillip’s wife, Natasha Wood­ly, con­firmed that he had a his­to­ry of hy­per­ten­sion and a pre-ex­ist­ing heart con­di­tion.

The Po­lice Ser­vice’s Vic­tim and Sup­port Unit was al­so con­tact­ed to pro­vide sup­port to his wife and fam­i­ly.

The an­nu­al To­ba­go In­ter­na­tion­al Sea to Sea Marathon is in its fourth year. The races take place to­day and to­mor­row.

Pro­fes­sion­al run­ners and en­thu­si­asts from all over the world will be com­pet­ing for over $350,000 in prizes on what has been de­scribed by some as “the most beau­ti­ful marathon course in the world”. The ac­tiv­i­ties con­sist of 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon races. The full marathon will take par­tic­i­pants through the Main Ridge For­est Re­serve and across the is­land’s At­lantic coast to fin­ish at Lit­tle Rock­ly Bay in the vil­lage of Lam­beau. The course is AIMS/IAAF cer­ti­fied and all fin­ish­ers re­ceive spe­cial­ly mint­ed medals.

CEO of Sea to Sea Events Ltd Karen O’Con­nor is re­port­ed as say­ing that the 10k route was chal­leng­ing. She al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the Phillip fam­i­ly.