IT was action from start to finish as Linden’s Daniel Williams tore up the track to close a sprint treble during the day, while the night climaxed with a fast start and fierce battle in the men’s 800m, then it all came to a close as Police Progressive Athletics Club was inevitably announced as the winners, picking up their fourth overall title in the Kares Engineering Inc Boyce and Jefford Classic VIII, which concluded last night at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground.

Despite Guyana Defence Force taking strong wins when Leslain Baird championed the men’s javelin with a powerful 69.24m throw, and Cleveland Forde showed up to win the men’s 1500m, this was not to be their year at all.
The Army finished 40 points behind the 395 points that Police amassed by the end of the two-day track and field competition. The second place $500,000 earnings helped cushion the blow, but even that was overshadowed by the $1 million grand prize that Police took away for the win.

In distant third place and earning $300,000 was Super Upcoming Runners with 119 points, while Linden finished fourth with 76 points and took $200,000 for their efforts.
Notwithstanding their fourth place finish, however, Lindeners had much to celebrate as they watched their own Daniel Williams do them proud.
The Lindeners jumped, screamed and shouted, as Williams took a comfortable win in the men’s 100m with a time of 10.7 second, the only athlete in the race to go below 11 seconds.

A fighting Tevin Garraway clocked 11 seconds flat for second place, overtaking his Police clubmate Emmauel Archibald, with just a few metres to go, as an unsuspecting Archibald cruised to the finish line with a 11.20 finish.
In the women’s 100m, Police’s Alita Moore found herself settling for second, as De Challengers Toyan Raymond ripped first place from her with a dip at the line giving her a time of 12 seconds, just 0.2 seconds faster than Moore.
As the afternoon began to settle in, Williams was back on the 400m track to compete in his pet event–the men’s 400m. Having just returned from the World Youth Championships with a silver medal in the event, his supporters were eager to see him perform, and expectations were high.

He delivered a 50.3 seconds win, and though far from his 46.72 seconds personal best, the first place was enough to appease the fans, after he wrestled it from Army’s Diquan Vancooten, who had to settle for second place with a time of 50.7 seconds.
As night settled in, the Guyanese crowd could wait to see if the highly-touted Julius Mutekanga would live up to expectations. The race, which also included Trinidadian Ashton Gill and overseas-based Guyanese Kevin Bailey, was expected to be heated.

And it lived up to expectations.
After the battle that played out it was no surprise that a new meet record was set in the international race which was won by Mutekanga in a time of 1:53.9 seconds, as Police’s Samuel Lynch surprised with a second place finish in a time of 1:55.9s, and Ashton Gill could only take third, and had a time of 1:57.1 seconds.