FURNITURE giant COURTS Guyana Inc. yesterday handed over its sponsorship cheque of $2.4M towards the hosting of its annual 10K road race, which is set for September 25.At a small presentation ceremony held at the company’s Main Street branch, Marketing Manager Pernell Cummings handed over the donation to AAG president Aubrey Hutson, who thanked the company for not only supporting this event, but also for being a continued source of financial support to the association.
“I must say that we are very happy with the support that we continue to receive from them. COURTS, in its willing way, has been supporting us, not just with this 10K but we’ve also gotten from them some very tangible sponsorship for our team to go off to CARIFTA 2016. We are happy to again partner with COURTS in assisting our athletes in their development at this time of the year. The entire council and members of the AAG look forward to this event, come September.” Hutson remarked.
In response, Cummings thanked the Association for providing an avenue for COURTS to continue to promote its fitness and healthy lifestyles. He also took the opportunity to encourage the general public to come out and support the event, stating that the event will include a 3K race open to company employees.
“COURTS, as a company in Guyana for the past 23 years, is always happy to contribute to the development of sports in Guyana as one of the tenets of our corporate responsibility. Thank you to the Association for allowing COURTS to be a part of the development of athletics in Guyana. This is the sixth year that we are hosting this event and every year we have improved. We’re inviting all of the gyms, all of the running clubs to come out, take part, let’s have a competitive race. Let’s run for health, let’s run for fitness, let’s run for fun.” Cummings implored.
The event which is now a fixture on the AAG calendar sees some clubs, athletes and gyms participate every year with last year having the largest registration in history for any 10K event in Guyana.
Hutson has already declared that this year is expected to see improvements, saying, “We would have learnt over the years where our shortfalls would have taken place and we are working assiduously to ensure that those things don’t show their head again this year.”
He also urged those athletes from all across Guyana to come out and challenge the Georgetown athletes with the association looking to provide accommodations for those athletes outside of the capital city.
“Athletes out-of-town, we’re working on getting you some housing facilities so you can come down from the Saturday. We’re working with the National Sports Commission to have you housed at the (National) Gymnasium.” Hutson explained.
The COURTS 10K is among a series of 10K road race events, culminating with the South American 10K. Just a few weeks ago the Massy 10K road race was held where Cleveland Forde continued to dominate as the men’s champion, while Ashanti Scott won the female title.
The affair will see participants compete in a number of categories including the Open, Masters and Junior.
In the Open category participants will be competing for a top prize of $100 000, with cash prizes doled out up to fifth place for both male and female sides.
The second-place finishers will pocket $75 000, third-placers will take away $50 000, while fourth- and fifth-place finishers will collect $30 000 and $20 000 respectively.
In the Junior category the winners from first to fifth will receive training vouchers in amounts of $60 000, $40 000, $30 000, $20 000 and $10 000 respectively.