De Nobrega beaten as John claims 1st Grenville Felix Memorial win

Jamaul John of Team Coco in a time of two hours 15 minutes and 11.49 seconds (2:15:11.49) won the fifth annual Grenville Felix Memorial Cycle race in Berbice on Sunday.

The win meant that John has now put his name on the lien trophy.
The second spot went to the one-arm rider Walter Grant Stewart with defending champion and two-time winner Paul De Nobrega occupying the third spot after a close battle with Michael Anthony at the finish line.
Fifth place went to Andrew Hicks ahead of Andre “Padlock” Green and Curtis Dey finishing in that order. The other three places went to Alanzo Ambrose, Romello Crawford and Christopher Griffith respectively.
John and Balram Narine took two of the 10 sprint point prizes, with one point each going to De Nobrega, Ambrose, Dey, Jamal Yearwood, Marcus Keiles and Jaikarran Sukai.
Despite a few hiccups, the race was a successful one.
After waiting for one and a half hours for the Police to arrive after the scheduled 13:00h start, organisers decided to send the cyclists on their way without the presence of the Police, but as soon as the riders were in motion, the Police arrived and quickly took up their positions in front and behind the peloton. However, as the riders were coming out of East Canje and turning onto the Number Two Public Road, Crawford fell. He, however, managed to rejoin the peloton shortly after despite his torn clothing, bleeding lacerations and obvious pain.
Owing to the lack of Police presence at the start, organisers took a decision to cut short the race and instead of going to the Number 51 Police Station, they decided to have the riders turn back at Number 36 Village to make it a 50-mile race instead of a 60-mile race.
The group stayed together for most of the distance until the last eight miles when the first four were able to get a short distance ahead of the others.
For the juniors, Ajai Gopilall was first ahead of Ralph Seenarine and Donavon Fraser while in the juvenile category, Steve Bhimsen was the first to cross the finish line followed by Mario Washington and Jeremiah Joseph.
The race attracted 29 starters.
The BMX category saw Daniel Blair winning and Shasin Karan beating Troy David into third place.
BMX rider Arfan Blair was given a special prize for his effort.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony, co-sponsor Rawl Felix thanked all of the participants. (Andrew Carmichael)

Jamaul John will now have his name inscribed on the lien trophy, which was handed over to him by Junior Felix