POLICE’s Jevina Sampson and the GDF’s Ornesto Thomas picked up wins in their 800m races yesterday, while long distance champion Cleveland Forde had to run a tactical race to win the men’s 5000m on Tuesday to help the Guyana Defence Force build up a lead over the Guyana Police Force (GPF) ,when the Inter-Services Annual Athletics Championship (ISAAC) started at the National Track and Field Centre in Leonora.Even as confusion prevailed over the results,at the end of the day the Guyana Defence Force (GDF),who are the defending champions,tallied 323 points to lead Police by 70 points.
In other team results,the Guyana Prison Services ended with 51 points while the Guyana Fire Service had 49 points.
Meanwhile, as competition continued yesterday with the 800m,shot put, javelin and triple-jump finals, contention continued over the day’s results, with organisers still trying to finalise the points up to late last night.
A similar situation prevailed on Tuesday when the event began, which saw the winners of races being mixed up.
Though the officials could not get their act together on the track, winning was the only thing on the minds of the athletes, seeking to take their team to the top. Sampson fought hard and prevailed over her teammate Shonsell Adams in the women’s 800m, while in the men’s 800m,Thomas took the win over his teammate Wayne Harlequin.
In Tuesday’s events, Police’s Nathaniel Giddings ran the race of his life as he tried but failed to overpower Cleveland Forde,aka Little Kenyan. Forde was content to let his teammate Odwin Tudor and Giddings lead for most of the race, but always mindful to keep just behind the leading pack. It was with just two laps to go that Forde really began to make a bid for the lead.He received some resistance from Giddings, who was intent on giving this race his best.
The sprinkling of spectators were on their feet cheering on their favourites, waiting in suspense to see if Giddings would manage an upset over Forde
But as the race entered the last lap,Giddings could no longer hold off Forde. By the time Giddings hit the back straight Forde had already put some distance between the two, and it was all over for Giddings. Giddings managed to close in on Forde,however,he couldn’t get past him.Forde then closed off the race in 15:54.70s, while Giddings came in just behind him in 15:56.60s.
Many commended Giddings for his performance,saying that was one of the best they’ve seen from him. Tudor took third in 16:07.00s.

The women’s 300m was won by Ashanti Scott in a time of 11:56.90s.

In other wins of the day, GPF’s Saphina Vanderstoop picked up the women’s discuss win with a distance of 36.90m.GDF’s Domon Williams leaped to 6.87m to take the men’s long jump win, and Aniqua Powley won the women’s long jump after clearing 5.42m.