THIS year’s battle for supremacy at the Inter-Service Annual Athletics Championships (ISAAC) will go down to the wire between defending champions Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and arch rivals Guyana Police Force (GPF) when the curtain comes down today at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora. The GDF strut into the final day with the lead and today’s competition is anticipated to be a heated battle for every last point.

“We come down from being behind by 47 points, and now we’re in the lead. And history will show that when we go into the last day with the lead we usually win the competition,” a confident Robert Chisholm, head coach for the GDF team, said yesterday.
“My expectation is that things will continue just how they are going now. My game plan is to have everybody do their best and win the competition,” Chisholm noted.
With 21 finals still to be completed, GDF tally 495 points against 482 points that the Police have acquired.
In a distant third are the Guyana Fire Service with 54 points, then Guyana Prison Service 41 points and City Constabulary 34 points.
However, head coach for the lawmen, Lyndon Wilson, maintains that Police are unfazed by the soldiers’ lead.
According to Wilson, “Not going into the final day with the lead just makes my team stronger, because they are hungrier for the win now. I am happy about their performance and their attitude so far.”
Today’s finals will include the lively male and female 100m, 200m, 400m and 1500m, as well as the exciting 4x400m and 4x100m relays.
In the men’s 100m and 200m Olympian Winston George will be the GPF’s lead man. George will match strides with GDF’s Rupert Perry with both men finishing at the top of their 100m and 200m heats.
In the 200m George clocked the fastest time, finishing the race in 20.10s. However, it’s Perry that boasts the fastest time of the men’s 100m heats, touching the line in 9.90s.
George defeated Perry earlier this year at the Boyce and Jefford Classic and it is left to be seen if he (George) can do it again, or if Perry has stepped up his game since then.
Also adding to the action in the 100m and 200m will be GDF’s Akeem Stewart, and Davin Fraser, and GPF’s Kevin Abbensetts.
For the GPF, Owen Adonis will also be representing in the 200m, while Tevin Garraway earned his place in the 100m final after clocking the third fastest time in the heats.
George will also compete in the men’s 400m, where GDF’s strongest men are Patrick King and men’s 1500m champion, Wayne Harlequin.
GDF could possibly cop the women’s 100m and 200m, as long as Aniquah Powley and Natreena Hooper stay on top of their game.

Powley tops the list heading into the final of the women’s 100m, having clocked 11.70s in the heats, while in the 200m she won her heats in 24.90s to have the second fastest timing. Leading the 200m is Hooper with 24.80s.
Behind Powley in the 100m is GPF’s Kezia Bess, whom Powley already defeated in the heats. However, Powley will also now have to contend against GPF’s Deja Smartt and her own teammate, Letitia Myles, who took the top two spots in the second heats of the 100m. GPF’s Onika Eastman will also qualify for the final of the 100m.
Smartt, along with women’s 800m winner Jevina Sampson, will give Powley and Hooper a run for her money in the women’s 200m.
GPF may walk away with the top wins of the women’s 400m, as Sampson, Bess and Tiffany Carto are the ones to watch, but they will no doubt receive serious competition from GDF’s Neisa Allen, Tiffany Smith and Olana Grant.
Meanwhile, in the 1500m, Cleveland Forde and Tyshon Bentick give the Army the edge, while on the distaff side is women’s 800m second-place finisher Andrea Foster.
For Police, the men’s side comprises Nathaniel Giddings, Quacy Morian and Grivon Grant while the women are Delly Williams, Stacy Wilson and Shion Boyer.