Independence Road Race, Relay Festival, Plaisance Mile booked for this weekend

The upcoming weekend will be packed with athletics’ activities in all forms as the Guyana Ex-Athletes and Friends stage a string of events over two days.
On Saturday May 22nd, the Plaisance Mile, catering for younger athletes, will get things going; while, later on on that day, the Relay Festival will get underway at the Leonora Track and Field Facility.
On Sunday May 23rd, 1K, 5K and 10K road races will be run concurrently, stretching from Carifesta Avenue to Turkeyen and back.
Relay Coordinator Kenrick Smith shared some exciting insights into this year’s relays.
“As promised, this year will be bigger and better and more exciting. The reason why I said that is that we have added five more events to the programme, and those are: the 4x200M relay Boys and Girls, 200M relay Allcomers male and female, and a Master…,” he revealed.
Elaborating, Smith said, “We also added a two-man relay, which is the 2x2x4, and that means that there are only two athletes running per team, one male one female, and they will be running two 200M and two 400M (legs). It’s the first time we will have this event in Guyana.”

In regard to incentives, committee member Burgette Williams-Forde explained that the prizes have been extended to encourage the younger athletes.
“This year, we concentrate more on our junior athletes because our junior athletes (are) the future (of) tomorrow’s Guyana. So, instead of giving a 1 to 3 prize and that is it, we have: Under-19, we’re giving 1 to 12 male and female; Under-16, we’re giving 1 to 12; and the one mile, we’re giving 1 to 10. And then we have other little goodies that we’re going to give out to the younger kids,” Williams-Forde explained.
She added, “And then, for the Open, it’s all cash prizes.”
To avoid any questions, the committee has provided an additional prize for the first Guyanese to cross the finish line in the 10K event, in case an overseas athlete should win the race.
Meanwhile, the main focus of Athletics Association of Guyana President Aubrey Hutson was ensuring the events are safe, so as to not contribute to the already alarming cases of the deadly virus in Guyana.
Hutson underscored, “We, at the Athletics Association of Guyana, we continue to work with the Task Force. We must never be a contributor to any number of increased COVID-positive cases. Hence, we continue to encourage you guys to ensure that the necessary protocols are in place to avoid our events being an event where any athlete, any official, any other person in whatever capacity they’re in, contracts COVID at your event.
“I must say that I’m really and truly grateful for what I’m seeing, and as I said before, let us ensure the mechanism is in place to execute a safe event.”
For the Road Races on Sunday, which are set to begin at 7am, the 10K race will begin at the Ministry of Education Ground on Carifesta Avenue, negotiate the Roundabout and proceed onto the Rupert Craig Highway, where it will continue to Turkeyen before turning back on the other side of the Rupert Craig Highway. Once it has passed the Russian Embassy turn, it will take the Kitty Public Road and return to Carifesta Avenue, making a U-turn at the National Park and finishing at the GNS Ground.
While the 5K race will take the same route, athletes would be turning back at Conversation Tree instead of at Turkeyen.
The 1K race will be contested by athletes between the ages of 8 and 12 years old.