TORONTO, Canada – December 23, 2018 was the date for the Guyanese-Canadian Full Throttle Cycling Club’s Annual Christmas Party at the Caribbean-owned City of Scarborough Spade Restaurant.

The highly festive occasion was also graced by a 50-year reunion of three former cycling club mates and Guyana national champions, Raymond ‘Sunjet’ Lee Own, Aubrey Bryce and Bruce Camacho.

The first above photo shows the three former Guyana national cycling champions Lee Own, Bryce and Camacho back in 1958 on their bikes as club mates.
The second is Lyn Balram’s December 23 photo of the three cycling amigos fifty-years later.

Known as the “Sunjet” for his phenomenal speed, Raymond Lee Own reigned undisputed as Guyana’s national sprint champion from 1962 to 1967 during which time he went head-to-head with some of the Western Hemisphere’s best sprinters.

Lee Own’s most famous victories included a 1967 win over Trinidad’s 1967 World Championships bronze medal holder Roger Gibbon, who was also the reigning Pam Am, British Empire and Western Hemisphere sprint champion.

Lee Own also twice defeated Fred Booker, the UK’s reigning 4 000 metres Pursuit champion and also boasted a 1967 victory over Jim Rossi the American sprint champion.

The reins as Guyana’s National sprint champion were effectively transferred from Lee Own to Aubrey Bryce in 1968. Bryce represented Guyana at that year’s Mexico Olympics during which he competed against 150 of the very best cyclists from 75 countries around the globe, before finally succumbing in the round of 16.

Bryce’s most famous international sprinting victories also occurred in 1968 when he recorded “mano a mano” match sprint double victories against Trinidad’s Leslie King, the current Western Hemisphere sprint champion.

Earlier that year, at the 1968 Texaco Southern Games, Bryce had shocked the entire cycling world with his unexpected match sprint victory over Italy’s Giordano Turinni, the reigning World sprint champion.

In contrast to the memorable sprinting exploits of his fellow Guyanese cycling champions, Raymond Lee Own and Aubrey Bryce, Bruce Camacho developed his own outstanding reputation as one of Guyana’s best-ever long distance cyclists.

Similar to Bryce, he emerged as a gold medallist at the 1968 Texaco Southern Games with his victory over Italy’s Luigi Roncaglia, who was at the time world’s number one Individual Time Trialist.

Camacho’s most successful year representing Guyana in international competitions came in 1969 when he won one gold and two silver medals in races against some of the world’s very best, including France’s seven-time world match sprint champion Daniel Morelon, Belgium’s 4 000 metres Individual Time Trial titlist Dirk Baert and Trinidad’s World Championship bronze and two-time Pan American gold medallist Roger Gibbon.

Raymond Lee Own, Aubrey Bryce and Bruce Camacho, Guyana national champions in their heyday and still good buddies fifty years later! (Frederick Halley)