….Fixed date for 2014 edition

“WE ARE looking at having a multitude of partners for next year’s event and if not, I want to guarantee you that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS) will fund and continue to fund the race until we get other partners to come on board with us.”Those were the words of Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony, who was addressing his audience which included Director of Sport, Neil Kumar, and president of the Guyana Cycling Federation, Cheryl Thompson, along with cyclists who competed in the just concluded seventh annual ‘Ride for Life’ cycle road race.
“We are extremely pleased that Team Coco’s and the other foreign competitors are here to compete, not because of the prizes, but to provide intense competition because if they were looking at the prizes, they would not have been here this year.
“I think that since we’ve had the participation of Team Coco’s, we have seen the quality of the race improving, especially the timings which have noticeably improved once we start having external competition and that is good,” related Dr. Anthony at the National Cultural Centre last Sunday.
He added, “I think this is good. It is good that we are able to have this firm competitiveness, so that we can improve overall. Every year we look to break records and unfortunately we were not able to break the overall record, but I understand one stage record was broken, for which I congratulate the winner of that particular stage.”
Recounting the difficulties faced to host the event, which cost approximately G$6M per year, Dr. Anthony thanked the members of the Guyana Police Force and all the others who made the race a success story this year, while making a plea for support from Corporate Guyana, to sustain the growth and development of the event.
“This five-stage race takes a lot of partners for us to pull it off… The Guyana Cycling Federation have been with us from the inception and they have done all the judging and technical part of this event which we have seen grown and become one on the calendar of our country.”
“When we started this race in partnership with the Ministry of Health, who benefitted from funding from a number of organizations, we thought it would provide a good backdrop in which we can educate persons across the country about HIV and AIDS,” related Dr. Anthony.
“It is still an issue with our country and while we would have made good strides and tried and reduced the incidence of HIV in Guyana, we still cannot take it for granted and the reason we thought about this race is primarily due to a lot of young people being involved in cycling and a lot of them follow the race.
The Ministry of Health saw the nexus for the first six years to fund the race at a cost of approximately G$6M. However, this year the international body which usually provided the funding were unable to do so, and we did not wish to discontinue the race, as it has become a calendar event.”
He continued to state, “We decided from the Ministry, through the National Sports Commission that we will fund it. Within the next two to three weeks, we will be calling all the stakeholders together and plan for next year’s race.
If that fails, because we want to have the private sector involved, and if that fails, then the Ministry of Sport will carry it until we can find responsible partners and corporate citizens who are willing to partner with us; but we have every confidence that they are persons out there who are seeing what this race can do, having seen it all.”
In his brief remarks, Kumar said the event which was won by 19 year old Raynauth Jeffrey of Team Coco’s, was indeed a success.
“I really appreciate the interest of our cyclists. Those that you see sitting here, who participated in this race, always called and enquired when we would have this race and after having discussions with Dr. Anthony, he decided that we will have the race this year, while next year we must have a fixed date,” said Kumar.
Thompson said her organization is very pleased to be associated with the event, while she thanked the participants for making it a success and offer special congratulations to Jeffrey for winning this year’s edition and bringing the title back to Guyanese soil.
Jeffrey recorded a winning time of 10h. 05mins: 33secs to take the top podium spot and US$1,000 and trophy, which came along with it, leaving the 2007 champion Alanzo Greaves in second place, 52 seconds behind, with his Team Coco’s teammate Darren Matthews third, a further 25 seconds behind Greaves.
Williams, Godfrey Pollydore, Orville Hinds, Paul DeNobrega, Robin Persaud, defending champion Jaime Ramirez and Eastman, completed the top 10 paying positions behind Jeffrey, Greaves and Matthews in the respective order, with a time deficit of 4m: 23secs separating Jeffrey from Eastman.

(By Calvin Roberts)