Cleveland Forde made it back-to-back first-place finishes in the Courts Annual 10k Road Race on Sunday when he held off rivals Winston Missigher and Cleveland Thomas to cross the finish line in a time of 33 minutes 37 seconds.
The race began shortly after 06:00h from Courts, Main Street and, this year, had
Overall winners pose at the start/finish line of the Courts 10k road race
the highest number of participants ever recorded at a road race.
In the early stages, Cleveland Thomas led but with Missigher and Forde at his heels, twice Forde made a move to gap his opponents, but both times it seemed as though he was testing the waters as he fell back with 7000 metres to go. At the midway point, Missigher, who was fresh off a leg injury, began grimacing and seemed to struggle, but kept abreast with Thomas and Forde nevertheless.
With 1000 metres to go, Forde made his move and began sprinting away from his two closest rivals; Thomas had no answer, but Missigher tried to run him down to no avail and the “Little Kenyan” crossed the finish line King of the Road once again.
Missigher finished second in a time of 33 minutes 45 seconds and Thomas third in 33 minutes 46 seconds.
After a long hiatus from running, GDF’s Ashanti Scott returned to take the top prize
King of the Road! Cleveland Forde crossing the finish line to retain his Courts 10k crown
in the women’s open category in 43 minutes eight seconds, some distance ahead of second-place Leyanna Charles (45:38s) and Joanna Archer (46:05s), who came in third.
The effervescent Alisha Fortune claimed first place in the Women’s 35 and over category with a time of 51:37s beating out Cyrleen Phillips (54:24s) and Carla Adams (55:16s) who came in second and third in that order.
In the Boys’ 16-19 category, Region One (Barima-Waini) athlete Rickie Williams ran well to beat Anfernee Headecker (35:58s) to place first in 35:05s while Delroy Leitch was third in 36:52s.
All winners were rewarded with trophies while the top three finishers in every category won hampers.
The event was sponsored by Courts Guyana while Banks DIH was the official beverage sponsor. (Michelangelo Jacobus)
