Written By Calvin Roberts
AN AUTHORITATIVE style of riding from Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams saw the Roraima Bikers Club (RBC) cyclist pedal away with the top prize in the feature event (30 laps) of the 16th Annual RBC/Troy Humphrey Memorial road race cycling programme held around the Sea Wall Bandstand yesterday.So dominant and commanding was ‘Fishy’ Williams’ win, that the second and third placed finishers, who were unfortunately his RBC teammates in Alanzo Greaves and Raymond ‘Steely’ Newton in that order, finished 30 seconds after him, completing a full podium finish for the organising club.
Thirty (30) of Guyana’s elite cyclists, including the top three mentioned above, Robin Persaud, Godfrey Pollydore, Rastaff O’Selmo, brothers Orville and Delroy Hinds, Horace Burrowes, Albert Philander and national champion Raynauth Jeffrey, among others faced the starter.
After Greaves took the first of 10 sprint prizes at the end of the third lap, ‘Fishy’ Williams made his move to the front of the field midway during the fifth lap and never looked back, claiming the remaining 9 sprint prizes that were up for grabs, despite a strong challenge from his competitors midway through the event.
He increased his lead which was a mere 15 seconds at one time, to 25 seconds over a chasing group that included Newton and Jaikarran Sukhai, who a few laps later were joined by Greaves, Burrowes, O’Selmo and Orville Hinds.
As the event progressed, so did the work ethics of the race leader and his chasing pack, who lost Newton, but were joined by Geron Williams, even as they reduced his lead to eight seconds for a brief period.
However, ‘Fishy’ Williams refused to let his hard work go to naught and increased his tempo at the front, thus increasing his timings over his nearest rivals after the 22nd lap, to ride away comfortably with the win, as Geron Williams, Orville Hinds and Walter Grant-Stuart, finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, behind the RBC trio.
Earlier in the day, Mario King rode off with the Junior’s 20 laps event from Shaquille Agard and Michael Anthony, Andre Green in that order, with Agard riding away with three sprint prizes and Montel Anthony and Silvio Inniss one each.
Agard was tipped to take the event, after taking the lead at the 10th lap, but was caught by Michael Anthony and King midway through the 15th lap, with King winning by a distance of 800 metres, leaving Agard and Michael Anthony to battle for the second place, which the former won.
The Veteran’s Under-50 and Over-50 event went together for a distance of five laps, following which United States based Joylyn Joseph edged Linden Blackman and Virgil Jones for the top spot in the Over-50 category, while Talim Shaw comfortably took the Under-50 category from Junior Niles and Ian ‘Dumb Boy’ Jackson respectively.
Hosea McAulay returned to winning ways in the Mountain Bike category yesterday, claiming the five laps event from his nemesis Richard Charles and Stephanoo Husbands, while Jamal John took the BMX Open two laps event from Jaleel Jackson and Deeraj Garbarran.
The BMX 6-9 one lap race was won by Sherwin Sampson from Jeremiah Harrison and Alexander Leung in that order, while Naomi Singh continued her dominance over Toshawna Doris, by carting off the Females two laps event.
The Team Time Trial was won by the Continental quartet of Grant-Stuart, Geron Williams, Paul De Nobrega and Alonso Ambrose who stopped the clock at the end of their four laps, at 8m: 03.57seconds, after being the fifth and final team to do battle.
Team Roraima which consisted of Greaves, Marlon ‘Fishy’ Williams, Warren ‘40’ McKay and Newton, were the second team to compete behind Team Coco and they had the lead after stopping the clock at 8m: 05.25secs, but loss out to Continental.
Team United (Burrowes, Hamza Eastman and Orville and Delroy Hinds), finished third .51seconds behind Team Roraima, with Team Coco that consisted of Jeffrey, Niles, Michael Anthony and Christopher Holder, placing fourth with a time of 8m: 16.35secs.
The Linden Bauxite Flyers quartet in Inniss, Agard, Akeem Arthur and Kravitz Jeffrey, placed fifth with a time of 8m. 40.87seconds, while the day’s event was sponsored exclusively by Humphrey’s Bakery and Farm Products, whose Managing Director George Humphrey, the father of the late Troy Humphrey, was on hand to witness the action in its entirety along with other members of his family.