ONE of GuyanaÆs foremost sports personalities in the areas of speed walking and cycling is Maurice Fagundes. His life story shows that hope, love and faith can triumph against all odds, including advancing age and life threatening sickness.

Born at King Edward and James Streets in Albuoystown, Georgetown to parents of Portuguese ancestry, Maurice was only two years old when his mother ôgave him awayö. Telling this episode of his life, Maurice becomes very emotional when he recalls being told that the doctor had said Maurice was so sick medicine couldnÆt do anything for him; but a kind Afro-Guyanese lady ôtookö him and fed him on a diet of boiled herbs, and eventually he started to grow.
Sadly, his beloved adopted mother died when he was only thirteen years old; and without her guiding influence, his life took a different turn. ôI got bad,ö he said as he paused. ôYou want to hear this part?ö When I answered in the affirmative, he continued: ôI got real bad, and in Albuoystown you had to be in the bad set to survive. This body that body wants to beat you. You go to the cinema and they hand go in your pocket, your hand have to go in their pocket too! You join them if you canÆt beat them; you have to join! I ended up at the Boys School (New Opportunity Corps).
Maurice said he spent three years at the Boys School; and as the saying goes, most times, when a person goes to prison, they either come good or they get worse. In his case, Maurice said, he got worse. He explained that, because of his small size and fair complexion, he had to show who he was.
When he came out of the Boys School, he had to choose a side; and with nowhere to go, he went to the bad side again. He slept in churches, schools, old cars and anywhere he could. He ôgraduatedö to stealing and selling bicycles, and when he was caught, he ended up spending six months in prison. He explained that he graduated to an even higher stage of criminality as he met more hardened criminals.
Maurice decided to seek out his family members, and found brothers and sisters from his biological parents. Amazingly, he had 20 of them, and he was number seven of 21 offspring by the same mother and father. Some of his siblings accepted him, while some were a bit ashamed of him. He clung to the ones who accepted him, and began to get some lodging and support from them.
He said he started to work in a hotel on Main Street, where he discovered that old habits die hard. One day, when he was at a cinema, a young man who was a cyclist beckoned him and said, ôYou see that bicycle? I want that! Could you get it for me?ö Maurice asked him where he lived, stole the bicycle and met his æcustomerÆ at the customerÆs Alexander Village home, even arriving there before the customer did.
The astonished cyclist said, ôBoy, you could ride!ö and encouraged him to come and start racing. Maurice took his advice and started riding competitively. He soon began winning races and gaining popularity, so he said to himself in regard to his thieving habit, ôBoy, done this damn nonsense and stop troubling people things!ö
He continued to work at the hotel, and, with a self-confessed weakness for women of African ancestry, he fell in love with a beautiful ôlady of the nightö named Ingrid, who at the time was plying her trade at the hotel.
At the time he had told himself æthis thingÆ couldnÆt work out, but æthe ladyÆ said she would look after him, and he decided to give it a try. One night he followed her down to another spot, which used to be located on Robb Street, but became angry after he saw her sitting on another manÆs lap, being hugged and caressed; and Ingrid had to ask him how he thought she æturned a trickÆ to get money.
Up to that point, Maurice had believed that turning tricks was a straight-to-the-point, right-away-action, strictly-business thing. Listening to Ingrid æreasoningÆ him, he said, ôNah! Nah! Nah!!ö He just couldnÆt stand to see Ingrid in the arms of another man, so he married her and started working to support her. They had two children — Gary and Hall, and for a while all was good. But one day she came and asked him for a divorce, as she was ôgetting a breakö.
Maurice claims that if he is intimate with a woman and he canÆt give her what she wants and she is getting a break, he would let her have her way. Thus he granted Ingrid the divorce, and she married a man of European ancestry and went to live in Holland. Today he is happily married to a pretty and vivacious African-Guyanese woman named Rose, and is the father of a 21-year-old son named Jonathan, who not long ago was racking up some medals and trophies of his own alongside his father, but is currently taking a break to pursue other things.
Maurice continued his running and won more races, later joining the ôRising Starö Club. He notes that, when school is closed, children as young as three or four can start racing lessons in the National Park under National Cycling Coach Hassan Mohamed. They start on a BMX then graduate to upright bicycles, then eventually to a racing bicycle. The racing cycle, he explains, differs from the other cycles in that it is angled down.
ôWhat makes a good biker?ö I asked Maurice, and he disclosed that in cycling it is speed, skill and stamina that are required. The skill part comes in knowing certain tricks, such as, for example, knowing how to tag another cyclist, which is utilising that cyclistÆs body as a wind breaker and conserving your own energy.
ôSometimes the man (might) dash across the road. When he dash, you dash too!ö Maurice said passionately.
At the relatively advanced age of 50, some 22 years ago, Maurice began to run in marathon races, and he beat many younger persons in those races. And he has the trophies to prove this.
He was never one for æreligionÆ, but one day, about nine years ago, sitting on the seawall after a grim medical diagnosis, he had an epiphany and placed his faith in God. A visit to the doctor had showed that one of his lungs had been irreparably damaged by tuberculosis, and he was cautioned not to ride more than one mile at a time. He continued to run after that, and ran distances as long as 26 miles (a full marathon) after that epiphany. He notes that he doesnÆt tell people he has one lung, as ôGod give me back my lung.ö
One has to have a passion for racing, and no one knows this better than Maurice. He notes that people pay less attention to the athletes that are advanced in age. For example, in many of the marathon events in which he competes, there is no monetary prize for athletes of his age group, as they do not fall in the ærecognisedÆ category; so he often competes only for the joy of competing, and to obtain a trophy.
The life of any worthwhile athlete in any field is one that involves training; and after our chat had concluded, Maurice immediately left to go on a training run, as he plans to compete in another event which is only days away.