UNITED States-based Guyanese Euleen Josiah-Tanner and Cleveland `the Little Kenyan’ Forde are very confident of winning the second leg of the 13th annual South American 10K Road Race set for tomorrow.Tanner, who won the 2015 first stage in the women’s category which was staged in Paramaribo, Suriname last Sunday in a time of 39 minutes 43 seconds (39.43), told Chronicle Sport yesterday she is not afraid of her opposition since she has been training very hard for the event and is 100 percent sure she is going to come out the winner of the event, which carries a first prize of US$1000 for the female category.
Josiah Tanner said every race she enters, she trains hard with the intention of winning and tomorrow’s race will be no different “but sometimes on race day your body tells you a different story so on race day, when I wake up, I’ll know how I feel,” Tanner stated.
Quizzed about her chances against her nemesis, Tonya Nero of Trinidad and Tobago, who defeated her in the first leg of last year’s event, Josiah-Tanner, a graduate of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) and who migrated to the U.S. in 1998 and continued her athletic career, said she is very confident she can win tomorrow’s second stage of the event, which culminates on November 14 with the final stage in Panama, with an overall champion being crowned.
Looking trim and slim, the confident Josiah-Tanner said Nero should not be a problem since she (Nero) is a human being just like her (Tanner) and “I fear no one”, a confident sounding Tanner declared.
Tanner explained that when she first registered to be a part of the now annual event in 2006, she lost her bib bearing her number and was not allowed to participate that year, and that year (2006), the first stage was hosted by Suriname.
Tanner also said when she placed second to Grenada’s Kenisha Pascal in 2013, it was a case of someone spraying a noxious substance into the air and it affected her while leading the Grenadian by approximately 800 metres, but as she made the turn into the ground, she fell to the ground but still managed to finish second.
Asked if she had a race plan coming up against Nero tomorrow, Tanner simply said, “I’ll stay with her, but if anyone else goes ahead, I’ll go with that person.

By Michael DaSilva