TODAY’S COURTS 5th Annual 10K run promises to be a blistering affair with all of Guyana’s top road racers looking to outdo one another.

Both the male and female Open categories are expected to be keenly contested, with Cleveland `Little Kenyan’ Forde looking to reclaim the title after his absence last year due to illness, enabling his arch rival Cleveland Thomas to take top honours with a time of 32 minutes 56.13 seconds, which is faster than the 33.58 he recorded last Sunday in the Massy 10K run, won by Forde in 33.15.
Apart from Forde and Thomas in the Men’s Open category, there is no one else who could possibly pose a threat for the top spot.

In the Ladies Open category, three names come to mind readily. They are United States (U.S.) athlete Euleen Josiah-Tanner, Alika Morgan and Andrea Foster.
Josiah-Tanner won all four of the past editions of the event and has been branded `The Owner’ of the event, but with the form shown by Morgan last Sunday in the Massy 10K, Tanner will have to be wary of Morgan.
It has been reported that Tanner arrived in Guyana sometime last week and has been keeping a low profile and has not been seen physically by anyone around the sport, but she is known for that kind of behaviour leading up to special events.
According to one road racing enthusiast “She (Tanner) just shows up at the start line and is ready to go.”
Athletics Association of Guyana president has confirmed that the U.S.-based athlete has registered for today’s event, but did not register for last week’s Massey 10K race.
Morgan, who, after a layoff from the sport, trained two weeks for the Massy race (almost 150 metres) and won comfortably ahead of Andrea Foster, who returned to Guyana three days prior to the event, after representing Guyana at the recently concluded World Championships in Bejing, China.

Morgan’s winning time last Sunday was 42 minutes .08 seconds, while Josiah-Tanner’s winning time for the COURTS event last year was 38 minutes 30.09 seconds which is far better than Morgan’s time last week.
But one must take into consideration that last Sunday’s race started very late and was contested in hot sunny conditions and this will not or should not be the case today.
Foster for her part, arrived in Guyana three days before the Massy 10K last week and was not acclimatised as yet, but put in a reasonable performance to place second and now that she has been home for some 10 or more days, she should be in some sort of condition to give both Tanner and Morgan a race for their money.
According to Athletics Association of Guyana’s (AAG) president Aubrey Hutson, all things are in place for the mega event which will pit together Guyana’s top middle-distance runners in both the male and female open categories.
Today’s activity will see competition in five categories, namely Juniors (16-19), Seniors (Men 30-34), Women (30-39); Masters (women 35 and over), Masters (men 40-54) and Masters men 56 and over).
All categories will attract cash prizes and trophies.

The race will start in front of COURTS, Main Street, proceed North to the Seawall Road, east along the Seawall Road, continue East along the Rupert Craig Highway Northern carriageway to turn at Church Road, Rupert Craig Highway’s southern carriageway into Kitty Public Road, South on Vlissengen Road, west on Lamaha Street, south on the Eastern carriageway on Main Street, turn around at the Cenotaph, to finish on the western carriageway on Main Street in front of COURTS.

By Michael DaSilva