Stars of yesteryear
- Raymond Lee Own
Stabroek News
July 13, 2002
Regarded as an extraordinary sprinter who represented Guyana from 1962 to 1968 in cycling, Raymond Lee Own grew up in Kitty where he lived with his parents, two brothers and a sister.
As a sprinter, he went head to head with the best in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1967 he defeated Trinidadian sprint ace, Roger Gibbon, the then Pan American, British Empire and Western Hemisphere champion.
Twice he out-sprinted Fred Booker, the United Kingdom's reigning 4000-metre pursuit champion at the time, who was himself, a very aggressive and physical bike rider.
Guyanese will remember his victory over Jim Rossi, the American sprint champion in 1967 in a grand finale 20,000-metre race on the old British Guyana Cricket Club ground, Thomas Lands.
Raymond was known for his blinding speed and instant acceleration in impossible race situations.
He had an uncanny ability of always being in the right place at the right time, and this was not just luck, since he had the ability to read a race, anticipate the opportunity, and position himself to take full advantage of this development, much to the detriment of his opposition.
This made him seem lucky.
Speed and his uncanny ability to read and sense a race were not his only redeeming qualities however. Chinny, as those who know him fondly called him, was also a leader. His sense of fair play, team spirit and camaraderie was always in evidence.
On a trip to Trinidad in 1968, he took up a one-man mission with the Guyana Cycling Federation for the supply of proper racing wheels for the team which was selected to represent the country at Trinidad's Texaco Southern Games.
When only a single pair was offered to him, he flatly refused to accept them unless wheels were provided to the rest of the team members who were travelling with him.
On another occasion he successfully lobbied for adequate spending money for athletes, while they were away from home on trips representing the country.
On other occasions he would rally the entire team around one common objective so that they would all work together for a common good, and most often, that objective would be achieved.
Those qualities went unnoticed. B. L. Crombie, renowned sportscaster and enthusiast, writing in the Sunday Chronicle of April 21, 1968 commented on the success, cohesion and team spirit exhibited by a team on its return to Guyana from the Texaco Southern Games. Little did Crombie know that the person responsible for providing the leadership that created the success, was none other than Lee Own.
Raymond still races successfully in masters events in Ontario and the Eastern United States.