RORAIMA Bikers Club (RBC) Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams, yesterday afternoon, outsprinted Junior Niles of the Carlton Wheelers Cycle Club, to take the top podium spot in the 8th annual James Fowler Memorial 20 laps criterium held around the Seawall bandstand and organised by the Kaieteur Cycle Club, in a time of 45:17seconds.

A mere 15 cyclists completed a lap of honour which was held in  memory of Fowler who died in a vehicular accident on the West Coast of Demerara on October 8, 2004, and only 11 completed the event which was contested in sweltering heat,  sponsored by Eric Sankar and Christopher Cush.
As early as the seventh lap, Alonso Greaves who took the first of 10 sprint prizes that was up for grabs called it a day, after Niles, Raul Leal, Akeem Wilkinson and Sankar moved to the front and held a lead of 150 meters on the rest of the field.
Greaves, Warren ‘40’ McKay, Paul De Nobrega and Enzo Matthews tried their valiant best to catch up with the front runners, an idea that filtered down to naught when Greaves pulled out of the event, while Matthews found it difficult to keep up with Mc Kay and De Nobrega.
In the sprint for home, Williams edged Niles to take the $25,000 top prize while Leal and Wilkinson followed closely behind, with Sankar who appeared to show no signs of being affected by influenza when he took five of the sprint prizes, trailing in fifth position.
Like his RBC teammate, Mc Kay outsprinted De Nobrega to take the sixth position and Matthews the eighth and final paying position.
Apart from Sankar’s five sprint prizes, the other five were shared by Greaves, Williams, Niles, Leal and Mc Kay, while Niles, Leal, Wilkinson, Sankar, Mc Kay, De Nobrega and Matthews pocketed $20,000, $15,000, $10,000, $9,000, $8,000, $6,000 and $5,000 respectively.