An irregular sprint between Briton John and Christopher Griffith highlighted the excited Team Alanis/Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) 60-mile Arrival Day race which commenced at Carifesta Avenue and turned at the Halfway tree at Mahaicony to return for the finish at Carifesta Avenue.
Team Evolution’s Christopher Griffith was named winner of the race, Briton came second, while Team Evolution’s Curtis Dey (third), Alex Mendes (fourth), Paul Choo-Wee-Nam (fifth) and Kwamie Ridley (sixth) were the top finishers.
Alex Mendes was the top veteran, while Mario Washington won the junior category.
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Walter Grant-Stuart, who grabbed the first sprint prize, made an early jump with Jaikarran Sukhai, and the duo led the race and set the tone. Team Alanis’s Paul Choo-Wee-Nam and Steven Fernandes closed the gap in pursuit of Stuart at Golden Grove, as the four cyclists led the way until an invasion came at Unity heading towards the finish.
Earlier, Briton John led the chasing peloton at Enmore going towards the turning point, while the Berbician Andrew Hicks launched a brief but vicious attack, leaving the pack around Unity and chasing ‘the four leaders’: Choo-Wee-Nam, Stuart, Sukhai, and Fernandes, who were 25 seconds away from Hicks when he eventually abandoned the chase.
Top cyclist Jamual John and veteran Reginald Mendes suffered flat tyres early in the race. ‘The four leaders’ were first to turning point at Halfway tree at Mahaicony, while Briton John, Christopher Griffith and Kwamie ‘Keyman’ Ridley were 50 seconds away from the leaders.
Griffith and Briton John displayed great strength
The chasers invaded the leading four with approximately 18 miles to go in the race.
Briton then launched an attack, and dropped his counterparts, with only Griffith weathering the storm along the Cove and John area on the East Coast as they blazed towards the finish. Griffith continued to tail, but Briton launched attacks while passing Turkeyen.
The aggressive Briton then took to sprinting 300 metres before the finish, but Griffith was not backing down from the battle.
Griffith was looking to overtake Briton on the inside but Briton was ‘bracing’ Griffith, who was unable to pass freely.
Christopher Griffith and Briton John battled until the end
After the race, GCF racing secretary Malcolm Soonoram clarified that both Briton and Griffith were called upon and the situation was addressed along with representatives. The decision was that Briton John deviated from his line in the last 200 metres, and he was relegated.
“On a review, when we checked the picture of the finish line, Griffith actually won the race,” Sonaram said.
The race was a commemoration of the birth anniversary of the late Jason Choo-Wee-Nam. Jason was the elder brother of Paul Choo-Wee-Nam, and was a successful junior cyclist in the 1980s. He died in a motor cycle accident in 1998, at the age of 24. Today Jason would have been 47 years old.
The event was given the green light from the National COVID-19 Task Force, and was supported by the Guyana Police Force. The next racing event is set for May 15 and May 16. That race is the three-stage Independence Race sponsored by the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport.
