..5K race set for this morning

 By Faizool Deo

OVER 1500 athletes will compete in this year’s Ministry of Education, Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) 59th National Schools Cycling, Swimming and Track and Field Championship, which runs off from this morning at the National Park.

This top national event is expected to improve this year, according to Competitions Director Ceon Bristol.  He said despite a late start all systems are in place for the weeklong event.

 “We started late as usual, but from the time we started, we moved at a reasonable pace to meet our deadline.” Bristol added that the organisers are trying to be “better and more effective” in their delivery this year.

Students will represent 15 Districts across Guyana, starting with a 5k race this morning on the outer circuit of the National Park. The action then moves to the National Track and Field Centre in Leonora for the 10k battle from 15:30hrs

Tomorrow the event continues with swimming and cycling.

From 09:30hrs swimmers will compete at the National Aquatic Centre, while cyclists will battle at the National Park at the same time.

On Tuesday, action continues at Leonora with the 400m heats and the start of the field events. On Wednesday, the 100m and the 800m heats and finals will take place, while on Thursday athletes will contest in 200m and 1500m heats and finals.

On the last day, Friday, sprinters will run the 400m final.

District 11 (North Georgetown) won over half of the events last year in the pool. They amassed 434 points from 27 first-place finishes. Their main rivals, District 10 (Upper Demerara-Kwakwani), finished second in swimming with 319 points from six overall wins.

Meanwhile, District Six (Corentyne) only just retained their cycling title after a strong challenge from District 10 in 2018.

District 10 then performed well on the track and in the field to win the overall title. 

North Georgetown and District 13 (South Georgetown) were tied for second place overall last year.