By Tamica Garnett

OLYMPIAN Winston George as well as Alita Moore’s victory in the men’s and women’s sprint events was not enough to help the Guyana Police Force curtail the Guyana Defence Force’s dominance of the Joint Services Athletics Championships (ISAAC) when the event concluded last Friday night at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora. The Army constructed an almost triple digit lead over the Police when the team ended with 613 points, and captured their third consecutive title at the event.In the four-day event Police managed 525 points,while the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) gathered 108 points and in fourth was the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) with 100 points. This year’s event went on without the participation of the City Constabulary team.
It was no surprise that the Soldiers defended their title at the event, but the almost 100 points lead was quite a feat. GDF led the Championships from the word go and is the first team to win in the swimming, road relay and athletics competitions of the Championships, with swimming having only been introduced to the event last year.
From the first day of competition GDF blazed to the lead, and continued to keep the Police at bay as the competitions proceeded. When GDF entered Friday’s activities with an 83 points lead it was already all over for Police who were merely trying to curtail the Army’s lead, but in the end that too was not to be.
Nonetheless,it was Police who took some of the limelight as George and Moore took the wins in the thrilling sprints, each making a clean sweep of the 100m, 200m and 400m in their category.
It was a 10.24 win for George in the men’s 100m, to take top points. But the Army hit back by ending with the second and third place spots. Akeem Stewart dashed across the finish line behind George in 10.38s, pipping Rupert Perry for third place after he came in at 10.38s.
George and Stewart were also out battling for the men’s 200m win, where George prevailed in 20.67 seconds, and Stewart was behind in 21.26 seconds. With Perry out of the race after a false start it cleared the way for Linton Mentis to pick up third in 21.58 seconds.
George gave his best performance in his favoured 400m, where he took a big win ahead of CARIFTA Games bronze medalist, Jason Yaw. George clocked 46.91 seconds, and Yaw finished in 48.17 seconds. Third for this race went to Winston Dummett (48.52s).
Moore matched George win for win on the women’s side, taking the 100m in 11.83 seconds to ward off the challenge of long jump winner Aniqua Powley who took second place after she clocked 11.92 seconds.
Moore needed just 24.51 seconds to get to the finish line in the 200m, while GDF’s Natrena Hooper needed 25.12 seconds.In the 400m Moore had a time of 56.60 seconds, beating out both Collia Raw (57.70s) and her teammate, Jevina Sampson (58.00s).
In other wins of the day Sampson picked up the women’s 1500m gold in a time of 5:08.40s, overpowering women’s 3000m winner Ashanti Scott who clocked 5:12.60s.
After having already captured the men’s 800m earlier in the week, Ornesto Thomas returned to rule in the 1500m,pulling off an upset win over Odwin Tudor and men’s 5000m winner Cleveland Forde. Thomas finished with a time of 4:18.44s, while Tudor was in after 4:19.05s and Forde crossed the line in 4:19.33s.