Abandoned or cancelled?but  Cyclists still receive prizes

THE Fifth Annual Payless variety Store 11-Race cycle programme was staged yesterday in the National Park,and while the undercard was held without questions, the feature 35-lap event which was opened to school boys, novices and invitational riders,came in for quite a lot of criticisms.
That event had 35 cyclists facing the starter, but at the completion of the 19th lap, Jamal John and Raul Leal were able to overtake the leaders,which included Marlon `Fishy’ Williams and a host of other riders who were subsequently ordered by race director Joseph Britton to drop out of the race,which they all refused to do.
At this point, Britton took it on his own and walked away from the finish line while the riders continued their journey unsupervised.In the end, Britton stated that he had abandoned the race since he gave instructions for the cyclists who were overtaken by John and Leal to desist from continuing the race but they ignored him.
“I tell them to drop out or back(off) because they have been lapped and they refused,so I decided to abandon the race.
However, when questioned by Chronicle Sport as to the reason for the race being abandoned by Britton, Mohamed said the event was not abondoned, rather it was called off.
Later at the presentation ceremony, John and Leal were announced joint winners of the feature event, while Paul Cho-Wee-Nam, Raynauth Jeffrey, Orville Hinds and Junior Niles were all rewarded for their efforts in placing third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
When asked how come the race was abandoned and yet prizes were distributed, race director Britton said it was part of the rules of the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF), while Mohamed said the race was not abandoned, “it was cancelled.”These two answers left much to be desired and are indeed difficult to comprehend.
Meanwhile, in other results from the day’s activity, Alexander Leung won the BMX race for both boys and Girls 6-9 years old two-lap race ahead of Jaren Barrington and Jessica Mohabir, respectively.
Terhan Garebarran won the three-lap BMX race for boys 12-14 years ahead of Marvin Knights and Sherwin Sampson respectively.However,Sampson won the BMX boys’ 9-12 years old two-lap race unchallenged.
Jaikaran Sukhai was the winner of the five-lap race for veterans under 50 years of age. Second was Junior Niles and third was Eon Jackson.
The five-lap race for veterans over 50 years of age was won by Kennard Lovell. Second was Linden Blackman.
Julio Melville was the winner of the three-lap mountain bike event. Second was Stephon Gobin, while Lennox Dick placed third.
Nigel Dugid won the juveniles’ 10-lap race ahead of Andrew Hicks and Raphael Leung respectively.