MINISTER of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony last Sunday joined several other cycling officials and enthusiasts at the finish line to witness the culmination of the 31st Annual National Sports Commission (NSC) Independence three-stage cycle road race, before delivering the keynote address at the prize-giving ceremony held at the National Cultural Centre shortly after.
Dr Anthony lauded the efforts of national cycling coach Hassan Mohamed,

even as he congratulated the winner, 19-year-old Barbadian Jamol Eastman and those who received special prizes.
“I think this race from the very first leg was very competitive, but we have to look at two things, mainly the event per se and our participants,” stated Dr Anthony to his audience which included Director of Sport Neil Kumar, MCYS Permanent Secretary Alfred King and Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) president Cheryl Thompson.
“As for the event, I am very pleased that we are able to attract overseas riders coming from different countries and Guyanese from the Diaspora coming back for the event and I think that is a very important thing.”
He added, “The sacrifices they would have made to travel and participate in this event, is recognized …..We want to encourage them to come on an annual basis as we extend the hospitality we are known for to them.
“We also want to ask them to extend an invitation to other riders to come here, because it is a great event and through their marketing and interaction with other cyclists, I think we can have more overseas participants competing in this event and even the five-stage road race.”
“All of you are welcome and while I know some of the organisers look forward to different results, this is sports and the best person would win and we don’t make any apologies for that, but what it should do is serve as an inspiration for the others, so the next time they can do better. So we welcome the foreign competitors and the competiveness they have brought to the event which has grown.”
He said it is important that the local riders keep their skills up, continue to ride and practise, since a lot of them have been getting international exposure, which is very good not only for them, but the sport in Guyana.
“We are seeing a lot of junior riders competing and that augurs well for the sport. This year we have made an improvement in terms of female participation and I am very pleased we saw four female riders competing, when in times gone by we would have one.”
Dr Anthony said that while this year’s race was “very competitive”, the females should be allowed to ride a shorter distance than their male counterparts, adding that the difficulties encountered by the female riders suggest that the organisers review the distance allotted to this group.
He suggested a reduction in the number of miles – at least for a period until they would become more proficient in the longer distances – can be applied to the female cyclists, which in its own way would encourage more female riders to compete.
Looking ahead, Dr Anthony noted that Guyana would be celebrating its 50th Anniversary as an Independent nation three years from now and called on the NSC and the GCF to organise a special event that can be used to commemorate not only the Independence Anniversary for Guyana, but cycling as well.
“In 2016, we will be celebrating 50 years as an independent nation and I think we should do something special. Since this race is being recognised along with our independence activities, I think for our 50th Independence Anniversary as a nation, we should do something special for cycling.
So one of the things the Director of Sport and the organisers will do is to plan not just the regular three-stage race, but another race that should not only celebrate our 50th Anniversary as an independent nation, but something that should also celebrate cycling in Guyana and perhaps the Caribbean and they have three years to come up with that concept and make it a successful one.”
In her brief remarks, Thompson congratulated the respective winners, before charging the Guyanese cyclists to put aside their differences and ride as a team, letting the foreigners know that this is their home turf and they intend to defend it well.
Like Dr Anthony, Kumar who chaired the proceedings applauded the efforts of Mohamed and his team for making the event a successful one, while he too reiterated the call for local cyclists to compete as a team and defend their territory.
Eastman completed the three stages which saw the cyclists compete for supremacy in a combined total of 171.5miles, in a time of 6h.58mins:13secs, which was far slower than Team Coco’s Ivan Dominguez’s winning time of 6h.44m:5secs that was recorded for last year’s event.
Continental Cycle Club’s Geron Williams, who placed fourth behind the top three finishers on Sunday, finished second to Jamol Eastman with a time of 6h.58mins:20secs, with Orville Hinds, Alonzo Greaves, Raynauth Jeffrey and Raul Leal, completing the top six paying positions in that order, as a mere 20 seconds separated Eastman from Leal.