Following her commanding win in the final leg of the South American 10K Classic held in Guyana on Sunday, Trinidad and Tobago’s national distance runner, Tonya Nero aims to return to this event in the following seasons to represent her country and defend her crown.
“One of my goals on my calendar is to come here every year and see how well I can do and represent my country and the Caribbean, so it is a big race for me every year,” Nero Said.
The talented 27 year old distance runner added that there was no competition for her as she would have clocked in her fastest timings for the year.
Nero dominated the competition on Sunday, romping to the finish line in a time of 36 minutes and 14 seconds; nearly seven minutes faster than her main competition, second placed Ashanti Scott of Guyana.
Running in her only leg of this year’s 10k, Nero found the conditions a bit challenging but was nevertheless good.
“I started of wanting to run a six minute a mile pace race and that is what I kept going through with but the hardest thing for me was the heat and with only around three water stops along the route, it was hard and I had to try to maintain my breathing to try not get overheated.” Nero stated.
The Trinidadian went on to say that this is a stepping stone for her as she has the aim of making it to the world championships next year August where she would like to represent her country and hopefully return with a prize.
The national runner was on course to make the 2016 Rio Olympics but fell short of her qualifying time in Dubai.
Fellow Trinidadian, Curtis Cox also dominated his competition in the men’s category during the Guyana leg of the South American 10K taking the top position on the podium.
