Rupert Perry’s win in the men’s 100metres and Andrea Foster’s defeat over Cassey George in the female 1500metres were among a number of notable upsets that marked the opening day of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) National Senior Championships which began yesterday at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora.Returning to the scene after an injury put him out for two years, Perry was an obvious crowd favourite as he took to the track to dominate over the likes of seasoned athletes Compton Ceasar and Kevin Abbensettes.
The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) athlete clocked 10.1 seconds to cruise into a comfortable win of the race. Abbensettes made it in 10.4 seconds to take second place.
“It was great coming back on the track after two years. The track was great,” Perry shared at the end of his race.
The female 100m went to Aniqah Powley who clocked 12 seconds flat.
The women’s 1500m was the first event to get the excitement started for the day, as an obviously injured Cassey George bowed out against Andrea Foster.
The two went head to head as the race started off from the finishing line but Foster began to put the strain on George from the 300m mark.
After another 300m George could take it no more and had to pause, that was all Foster needed to take over the 100m lead. A lead that George could never recover from and the CARIFTA gold medalist could only clock 5:17.1s for a second place to the 5:03.2s clocked by Foster to win the race.
In the men’s 1500m things were just as exciting as Cleveland Thomas battled it out against Ernesto Thomas for his first place medal.
Cleveland clocked 4:03.4s just a second ahead of Ernesto’s 4:04.8s. Police Progressive Youth Club’s Kevin Bayley managed to struggle to a third place finish.
In other races Natricia Hooper took the women’s 400m and Devon Barrington gave Arinze Chance a run for his money as he took the men’s 400m.
In field event wins of the day Maurice Gibson took the men’s long jump after clearing a distance of 6.77m, while on the distaff side the gold went to Police’s Cindy Fraser who managed 4.88m.
The competition continues today at the same venue

By Tamica Garnett