Flashback! A scene from last year’s South American 10K Road Race
The Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) is planning to host the 20th edition of the South American 10K Road Race on Sunday, November 6, from 3.30pm, and approximately 200 athletes from Guyana, the Caribbean and South America are being catered for.
This announcement was made on Monday, September 26, during an AAG press briefing in which President Aubrey Hutson divulged that changes would be made to the route in which the race is staged.
AAG president, Aubrey Hutson
“This year, it’s going to be the 20th anniversary (of the event), so we’d like to put a little more into it, and we’d like this event to look as professional as we could in Guyana,” Hutson announced.
“There are quite a few changes that we would’ve made to the race in terms of where we run it. We know we would’ve tried the East Coast, then we went to West Demerara, and we continued to face the issue of traffic congestion and traffic encroaching into the event. So, we decided to use the World Athletics’ standards and standards used across the world in running this event against the flow of traffic. So, what we’re actually doing is forcing the Police and all that are involved in this event to actually close the route down for the running of this event,” Hutson explained.
In detailing the new route that the 10K Road Race would be taking, Hutson highlighted that the change is aimed at avoiding traffic and residential areas, and maintaining control.
“We’re not going to be using the Children’s Monument as we did in the past, this is to alleviate some of the issues again that we faced with residents being on the northern side of that road. We’re trying to minimise the amount of residential areas that we have to pass,” the AAG president has said.
The new route would see competitors starting in the Montrose/Happy Acres area of the East Coast Demerara, travelling along the northern carriageway to the Kitty Roundabout, then on to the JB Latchmansingh Road then on to Thomas Lands and into the National Park, where the finish line would be near the gym rather than the Children’s Monument.
Hutson is confident that a large number of foreign athletes would participate in this race, especially those from South America. He divulged, “There was further commitment, at the official congress that we had in Sao Paulo, from every South American country, their willingness to participate; we just have to work out with Copa Airlines the logistics of them getting here. So, we could expect to see most of those athletes showing up here from Friday the 4th.”
He further explained that the AAG is hoping to have the competing athletes in Guyana by the morning of Friday, November 4, so as to allow for training on Friday afternoon and Saturday. The race is scheduled for runoff at 3.30pm on Sunday, November 6, and the first prize for both male and female athletes would include an 18 karat Guyanese gold medal and US$$1000.
In addition to the 10K Road race for seniors, the AAG would also be hosting its customary 1500M and 3000M races in the National Park.
