… $3.3M in cash and prizes up for grabs
WARTSILA Operations Guyana Inc. on Monday launched the most lucrative 20km road race as the power company brings the curtain down on its 20th Anniversary celebrations during February 23-March 2.
The launch, which took place at the Head office of the Guyana Olympic Association in Kingston, is an athletics association of Guyana-sanctioned event aimed at attracting some 200 local and overseas professional athletes, school athletes as well as casual runners.The meet is set for a 06.00hrs start on March 2 and sees $3.3M in cash and prizes up for grabs in six categories.
They include the juniors 18-19, seniors 20-34 women, 20-39 (male), masters 35 years and above in the women’s category, males 40-54 years old, masters men age 56 and above over 5km, with the youths boys and girls also involved in a 5km meet.
The challenge will race off from Paradise on the East Coast of Demerara, proceed west along the East Coast public road, continue on to the Kitty public road, into Carifesta Avenue, north on to upper Camp Road, west into Battery Road, south on to Water Street and end in front of the power company’s Kingston head office.
“The genesis of this event is in the fact that we thought that we could make road races bigger. We wanted to do this to end our anniversary week with a bang,” Arron Fraser, the Contract Manager at Wartsila, said during the launch..
He added that organisers intend on bring an international standard meet to participants as a reflection of Wartsila as a “transnational” company.
Fraser also noted that there will be added attraction in a ‘fun run’ and is encouraging corporate Guyana to come out and be a part of this anniversary race.
President of the AAG, Aubrey Hutson, acknowledged that the race will be “one of the best events we will ever have in Guyana”.
He has called on local and international athletes to get registered and be a part of this worthwhile event.
“The season is ripe for this race and we expect all the leading athletes to register. We also look forward to everyone coming out to participate in this mega race,” Hutson said.
Organisers have assured that every effort will be made to have an incident-free event with security, medical personnel, marshals, water and refreshment staff in place to deal with any eventuality.