RUNNING Braves (RB) and Police athletic clubs ensured they walked away with most of the spoils up for grabs at the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) Relay Championships at the National Track and Field Centre last Sunday. Police ended the day on a high note when they copped an unanticipated win over the RB team in the men’s 4×400, which ended competition for the day. The Police team comprised Winston Dummett, Kevin Bailey, Carlwyn Collins and Kareem Purch and clocked a time of 3:20.5s. For RB the athletes were CARIFTA Games medallist Jason Yaw, Devon Barrington, Quacy Clementson and Cleveland Thomas.
Meanwhile, RB carted away wins in the men’s distance medley and 4x800m. They also took the female 4x100m with Alicia Fortune at the helm, as well as the 4x200m relay, which they took in a time of 1:42.14s.
In the men’s 4x400m, the athletes were evidently tired from a day of running multiple events, consecutively, but still attempted to give it their best shot. Clementson started things off for the RB team before handing over to Yaw who barely managed to maintain a lead as he got quite the fight from Police’s Kevin Bayley.
The Police team, which was started by Winston Dummett, kept them on their toes for the rest of the race even as Thomas took over the baton from Yaw and held on to the lead. On the third leg for Police was Carlwyn Collins.
It was all left to the anchors. Purch faced off against Barrington. Barrington gained momentum on the final straight to fly into the lead, overconfident in his ability to take a win over Purch.
However Purch never let up and kept the heat up on Barrington all the way to the finish, giving his team the win just milliseconds ahead of the RB team.
Police also won the women’s 4x100m in 4:06.01s, with a team comprising Iesha Parris, Tiffany Carto, Jevina Sampson and Kezia Bess. Police came in behind RB in the men’s distance medley, the 4x800m, and came second in both the men’s and women’s 4x200m, the sprint medleys and men’s 4x100m.
The ultimate win for the men’s 4x100m, in a time of 42.17 seconds, went to the Guyana Defence Force team which was headed by senior 100m champion Rupert Perry, supported by Davin Fraser, Leslain Baird and Akeem Stuart.
GDF also won the women’s sprint medley (1:45.77s), as well as the men’s sprint medley (1:33.6s), and the men’s 4x200m (1:27.37s).