—finals set for today at Eve Leary
THE Guyana Police Force (GPF) will be seeking to regain the overall title of the Annual Joint Service Track and Field Championships which concludes today at the Police Sports Club ground Eve Leary.Already, the lawmen and women have seized a sizeable lead in the points standing and are looking all set to regain the championship title which they lost to the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) three years ago.
After three days of competition, the GPF have accumulated 245 points, 45 ahead of the GDF and more than 200 points ahead of the other disciplined forces (Guyana Fire Service, Guyana Prison Service, and City Constabulary).
Today’s finals will see the country’s top senior athletes competing against each other and much rivalry is anticipated as the GPF are out to prove they have better athletes than the GDF.
Two of the most anticipated finals will be the women’s and men’s 100 and 200-metre races, as Alita Moore and Litia Myles will try to outdo each other in the women’s 100-metre final, while GDF’s Davin `Black Boy’ Fraser and police’s Olympian, Winston George, will face each other in the men’s 200-metre final.
Fraser returned 21.98 seconds in winning his heat, while George clocked 22.2 seconds to win his heat. The 22.2 seconds registered by George is the same time that police’s Shawn Semple returned to place third in the heat that was won by Fraser.
GDF won the title in 2011 but failed to repeat that performance last year as they (GDF) and GPF were tied on points last year.
According to the GDF coach and former national quarter mile champion Robert Chisolm, he has put together a very good bunch of athletes for this year’s championship and he is very confident the soldiers can pull off this year’s title, however, the soldiers will have to come better that they have been over the past couple of days as the GPF is determined to hold on to their lead
Chisolm is of the view that he has a stronger track team than the police’s athletes, but admitted that the Police field athletes are stronger than his.
For today’s men’s and women’s 100-metre final, Police will be represented by two top class athletes in Quinse Clarke and Lotitia Myles respectively.
Other top police athletes on show today will be Patrick King (men’s 400-metres) and Tyshon Bentick.
Meanwhile, GPF won the men’s road relay on Tuesday for the first time in the event’s history.
The law keepers also made a clean sweep of the women’s long jump with Tracy Moses winning with a leap of 5.29 metres, followed by Cindy Fraser (5.26m) and Tandika Burgess (5.23m) respectively.
(By Michael DaSilva)