NATIONAL sprint champion Rupert Perry made an impressive return to local soil when he stamped his authority in the 200m male event at the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) annual athletics championships at the Camp Ayanganna ground.

Like Perry, most of the top athletes competed out of the Defence Headquarters who led the entire Championships from the beginning. Defence HQ won with a total of 336 points ahead of their closest rival Base Camp Ayanganna who had 231 points.
Perry suffered an ankle injury while in Jamaica which put him out of the scene for some time.
Perry clocked 20.1s (hand time) to defeat Patrick King (20.4s) and Akeem Stewart (20.7s). King managed to bounce back in the 100m and 400m male events with two stunning victories.
In the female sprint category Nekisha Myles crossed the finish line comfortably in 24.5s, ahead of Tiffany Smith and Shanice Hatton who clocked 24.9s and 27.4s respectively in the 200m.
The female 100m saw Tiffany Smith cruise to a victory in a time of 12.6s, followed by Maurees Skeete (12.8s) and Tinesha Dorway (13.9s).
An impressive performance also came from Tyshon Bentick who won the male 800m in 1:57.0s, while Silton David finished second in 2:03.0s and Jamal Chisholm third in 2:05.5s.
Carlisa Atkinson won the women’s 800m in 2:44.9s ahead of Ashanti Scott (2:48.2s) and Shonette McFarlane (2:50.8s).
Meanwhile, national long distance runner Cleveland Forde was his usual dominating self as he took the 1500m in 4:03.6s while Bentick was second (4:08.7s) and Chisholm, third (4:24.3s). Ashanti Scott won the female 1500m in 5:32.6s, followed by Atkinson in 5:39.1s and Hatton in 6:01.5s.