Royal Youth Movement take national relays crown
By Leeron Brumell
Guyana Chronicle
March 1, 2004
THE Royal Youth Movement (RYM) club claimed the 2004 national relays championship crown when they out sprinted and out-pointed 10 other clubs yesterday at the Police Sports Club ground Eve Leary.
The club, coached by Christopher Gaskin, totalled 202 points to come clear of their closest challenger, Police Sports Club with 183 points, Upper Demerara 82, Silver Fox 77, President’s College 67, Belladrum Secondary 45, Dora Secondary 39, Bygeval Multilateral 34, Sapodilla 28, Bedford All Stars 8 and Road Runners 4.
Royal Youth Movement showed that they could still be a force to be reckoned with despite the setback of two clubs being formed out of it (Bedford and Silver Fox).
The race of the day proved to be the Men’s sprint Medley that was claimed by Silver Fox in 1:34.4.
The distances of the race were 100m, 100m, 200m and 400m. After the 200m hand-over stage, Police were holding a five-metre lead until the final leg when Silver Fox, battling to end on a high note, jostled the Police athlete nearly forcing him off the track.
The stride was broken in the Police domination and Silver Fox sprinted home by a clear seven metres. Royal Youth Movement placed third.
In the female sprint medley, Police took the top spot in 1:56.3 followed by Royal and Sapodilla of Berbice in third.
In other results Royal Youth Movement took the 4x200m women’s race with Police in second and Silver Fox third, while Police won the male event in 1:29.4, followed by Silver Fox and Royal Youth Movement.
The Girls’ and Boys’ 4x200 Under-15 event was won by RYM, with Police taking the Girls’ Under-17 race, but RYM roared back to place first in the Boys’ event.
In the 4x400m Under-15 division, RYM won the Girls’ event in 4:29.4, while Upper Demerara won in the Boys’ category, Police won the Girls’ Under- 17 event, with RYM taking the Boys Under- 17.
In the Women’s category, Sapodilla took the race in 4:23.3 and Police the Men’s race.
In the 4x100m races, RYM took both the Under-15 titles, Police the Girls’ Under- 17 and RYM the Boys’ Under- 17 with RYM dominating the Women’s race in 51.3 and Police first in the Men’s division, 42.4 seconds.
Royal won the 1300m Girls’ and Boys’ Under-15 Medley, while Police won the Under-17 Girls’ 1500 Medley and Belladrum Secondary the Boys’ race.
Silver Fox won the Women’s distance medley in 9:56.0 seconds ahead of Police and Sapodilla, while Police won the men’s race in 7:56.0 ahead of Royal and Bedford.
Some 26 races were completed on a day and everything ran smoothly.
The event started promptly at 13:15 hrs until the starter was told to slow down.
For the Amateur Athletics Association (AAA) it was a great start to the season when there was, surprisingly, a large crowd.
For this president of the AAA Claude Blackmore was pleased and his association will now turn its attention to the National championships billed for April.
The competition also saw its biggest participation rate in at least two years as athletes set fire to the track and they were cheered and applauded accordingly by other athletes and supporters.