TOP GUYANESE male and female distance runners, Cleveland Forde and Alika Morgan, have responded to recent reports regarding their participation and non-participation in the recently-held Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS) Independence half- marathon.

Forde, who successfully defended his crown, admitted while speaking exclusively to Chronicle Sport that he has an injury which, because of the tactics he used in Sunday’s race, would have been aggravated some more.
“I have an injury and the way that I won the race as I allowed myself to be under a lot of pressure would have played more on the injury. Looking at the way I am feeling it seems as though the injury has worsened and I would need to properly evaluate this so as to determine the way forward,” Forde said
Forde said that while he has a busy schedule set for the remainder of the year he is currently focused on getting fully healed so that he is not affected in any way by the injury, which is not a serious one, but still created some amount of discomfort during last Sunday morning’s race.
“I will seriously have to examine it and see what has to be done so as to ensure that I am fully fit and ready for my next race,” declared Forde.
Meanwhile, in an invited comment with Morgan on her non-participation, which according to Euleen Josiah resulted in the race not being very competitive, she said that it was because she wanted to safeguard herself, dispelling any reports that she was injured thus resulting in her not being able to compete in the race for yet another year.
“I am not injured, I am doing very well. I decided to opt out of the race because for two consecutive weekends I competed in Suriname where I won both races and I am expected to compete very soon in Trinidad where I will be defending my 5K title so it was felt that I should not push myself over the limit,” she said.
Morgan’s manager Leslie Black said that Morgan was determined and excited to compete in the race, however he opted against it as it would have been three consecutive weekends that she would have been competing.
He said that the pressure on his athlete would not have been healthy and therefore in the quest to ensure that she is fully ready and prepared to defend her title in Trinidad, he took the decision to not allow her to compete.
“Alika competed two consecutive weekends in Suriname and to come and compete in this race would have been too much for her as she still has her 5K title to defend in Trinidad,” Black said, adding that his charge is ready and well prepared for the defence of her title, noting that she is under immense training and expressed confidence in her ability to do very well.
However, Black noted that with his charge competing successfully in two 10K in Suriname and winning them in very good times, she is somewhat a bit exhausted.
“I am aware that many persons were looking forward to see Alika compete but as her manager I must ensure that any decision taken is in the best interest of her. We have looked at her performances in both races in Suriname and I am very confident that she will defend her title successfully in Trinidad hence the decision to rest her for the half-marathon,” he asserted.
Morgan commenting on the race said that it was a good race noting that Josiah had no major competition, while expressing the desire to compete next year with the aim of taking the title from Josiah who declared that she will be back to defend it, after being the lone female overseas-based Guyanese to compete in the race.
“I watched the race and yes I see that Josiah did well in winning it but I am sure that I will be entering next year and I am confident that I will be the new champion,” declared a confident Morgan.