GUYANESE journalist and road racing athlete, Reuben Stoby, was named Male Road Racing Athlete-of-the-Year 2015 when the British Virgin Islands Athletics Association (BVIAA) held its 7th Athletes Awards Gala presented by Sol on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 at The Moorings’ Mariner Inn on Wickham’s Cay II, Tortola, British Virgin Islands.It was the crowning moment for Stoby who has enjoyed tremendous success on the road racing scene in the British Overseas Territory as he ran unbeaten in 2-mile, 5K and 10K competitions for the year, while setting a number of course records and placed 2nd in the Virgin Gorda Half Marathon in May.
A fourth-place finish in the BVI Half Marathon and second in the Ring of Fire, a semi-ultra marathon, in December completed the year for the athlete who aims to come stronger in the longer distances in 2016.
Although he only started running in 2013, Stoby said his passion to succeed, discipline, determination and hard work, enabled him to be competitive and eventually become BVI’S Road Racing Champion.
Of his amazing sequence of running Stoby said “In October, I was selected to represent the BVI at the NACAC 10K in Petit Bourg, Guadeloupe, where I competed against some of the best in the world, including from Kenya, Canada and France. In November the Athletics Association of Guadeloupe invited me to take part in another 10K where again I gained valuable exposure competing against some of the best in the Caribbean.”
Meanwhile, another Guyanese athlete, Julius Farley, had also received nomination for Male Road Racing Athlete-of-the-Year.