Niles wins feature 35-lap event

Veteran cyclist Junior Niles, yesterday, won the feature 35-lap event of the Payless Variety/Starr Party Rentals sponsored 11-race cycle programme in the National Park, in the absence of defending champion Raynauth Jeffrey who is currently in Mexico on national duty.Niles returned a time of one hour 22 minutes 34.6 seconds in winning the event ahead of Jeban Crawford, Jaikarran Sookhai, Romelo Crawford, Jamal John and Mark Harris respectively.
Niles, John and Harris won two prime prizes each while Romelo Crawford and Jeban Crawford won one prime a piece.
From the start of the feature 35-lap event, the six top place finishers went to the fore and maintained the lead, all the while interchanging the lead with Stephan Fernandes, C hristopher Persaud and another rider went in pursuit but never connected and was lapped after 20 laps of the 35-lap event was completed and they opted out of the race as the six leaders had established a huge lead which the chasing trio was not able to close in on.
The leading bunch opened a two minute lead on the chasing trio after 15 laps were completed and extended it as the remainder of the laps went by.
With four laps remaining, Sookhai attacked the leading pack but it was short lived as Niles went in pursuit and was followed b y Jeban Crawford and the two overtook him and opened a lead of more than 600 metres before the final lap.
In the end, Niles jumped Jeban Crawford approximately 150 metres from the finish and steered clear from his nearest rival.
Sookhai finished a distant third while Romelo Crawford held on for fourth.
In other results from yesterday’s activity, Rakeem Blair won the boys and girls 12-14 years three-lap race ahead of Amunike Gomes and Teshawanna Doris respectively.
Shameer Baksh made a successful defence of the veterans under- 50 years five-lap title ahead of Niles and Wilbert Benjamin respectively.
The veterans over-50 five-lap race was won by Linden Blackman. Second was Virgil Jones, while Maurice Fagundes was the winner of the five-lap race for veterans over 60 years of age.
The 10-lap race for juveniles was won by Romelo Crawford. Second was Jaheel Jackson and third was Kamuel Nurse.
Seon Budhan won the five-lap race for mountain bikers ahead of Shamar Das and Adrian Sharma respectively, while Jerimiah Harrison was the winner of BMX Boys six to nine years old two-lap event. Second was Christopher Goring and third was Alexander Leung.
The BMX Boys nine to twelve years old three-lap race was won by Sherwin Sampson. Second was Jonathan Jagdeo and third Jeremiah Harrison.
Rokeem Blair won the BMX boys 12-14 years three-lap race ahead of Amunike Gomes and Doris respectively.
Prior to the presentation of prizes to the respective winners, race organiser Hassan Mohamed thanked the Managing Director of Payless Variety Store Joseph Ramkumar and Starr Party Rentals’ Lennox Cush for making the third annual event a reality and said he hopes that come next year, the two entities will come back on board. Cush was absent from yesterday’s activity due to other commitments.