IN their customary dominating style,Guyana’s Cleveland “Little Kenyan” Forde and Euleen Josiah-Tanner took the men’s and women’s win respectively, in the first leg of the South American 10km race which ran off last Saturday in Suriname.Also participating and doing well at the event were Guyana’s Cleveland Thomas and Winston Missigher, who finished second and third respectively, behind Forde.
Coming off a season when he ruled in all but one of the 10km events he participated in locally, Forde clocked 34 minutes 9 seconds to take the first win of the three-part race.The time represented one of Forde’s slowest this season, and it remains to be seen if he will need to up the ante when he competes in the Panama and Guyana legs of the event which is set for November 13 and November 20, respectively.
The time is also down from the 31 minutes 54 seconds that he clocked in the same race last year, when he won.
Thomas took second in a time of 34 minutes and 16 seconds, and was happy with how things ended, though somewhat dismayed that he again could not cop a win.
Though Forde and Missigher were unavailable for post-race comments, Thomas was on hand and he told Chronicle Sport that: “I’m satisfied with my performance even though it would have been nice to win the race, but I know in some previous races I have droped back a little,so seeing my improvement from my last race I must be happy with my position.
I know there is so more work to be done so I will be going back and continue my hard training in preparation for the 2 leg of the south American 10km and all my others races as I am hoping to finish my year on a high.”
Missigher placed third in a time of 34 minutes 25 seconds.