–Niles continues dominance of Under-45 division

BRITON John accumulated the most points for 2019 in cycling and, on Saturday evening, he was duly rewarded with a plaque and cash prize.

The national rider, who was not at the presentation, also won the Most Improved Cyclist plaque at the seventh annual award ceremony of the Guyana Cycling News, which was held at the Saint Stanislaus College in the capital city.

The event was attended by most of the top cyclists in the country, and drew praises from current president of the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF), Linden Dowridge.
In a brief speech, Dowridge noted that the event has grown into something “grand”. The GCF president was also hopeful that 2020 would be more productive for the sport.

“Sponsors, well-wishers, thank you very much for supporting us and we are looking forward to your continued support for next year. Hopefully, that would be a better year, a bigger year, for cycling. We have a number of things planned and once we are able to put them together successfully, next year should be better.”
Balram Singh, head of the independent body– the Guyana Cycling News–was elated that his input has helped to further develop the sport.

“Guyana Cycling News started in 2011 because I found that there was no avenue to get cycling information out, especially to overseas Guyanese, so I started to post the result of races, pictures…there was no forum to discuss any aspect of the sport….”
Singh noted that after a year-and-a-half, he brought in Malcolm Sonaram and then, later, overseas-based Guyanese Elvis Budhram, who helped with US-based cycling news and stats from time-to-time. He noted that recently, Enzo Matthews also assisted with photos and video footage.

Singh added that although donations were received from a number of persons, he normally has to add over $100,000 out of his own pocket, annually, to support the venture.
Along with the plaques, over $300,000 in cash was also awarded to the winners.
Although John won the top award, Junior Niles again dominated the Under-45 division. The ace cyclist collected award number seven for his consistency and quality performances in his category. In total, he tallied 117 points.

Second position in the Masters U-45 division went to Paul Cho-wee-nam (67 points), while third place went to Alex Mendes (46 points).
In the Masters Over-45 category, Ian Jackson won ahead of Kennard Lovell and Andy Spencer.

Denise Jeffrey from Team Evolution was the lone recipient in the female category.
Meanwhile, in the Juvenile division, Sherwin Sampson won ahead of Jonathan Ramsuchit and Mario Washington.
Berbice cyclists Ajay Gopilall (133 points) and Ralph Seenarine (105) were first and second in the Junior Points Classification.

United cyclist Briton John tallied a whopping 192 points, followed by Michael Anthony (168 points), Jamual John (156), Curtis Dey (121), Paul Denobrega (118) and Andre Greene (114).

John, who was riding overseas earlier this year, was also rewarded for copping nine local wins, the most this season.

Walter Grant Stuart, Andrew Hicks, Marcus Kilier, Deeraj Garbarran and Christopher Griffith also received bonus cash prizes.