Top 2003 cyclists honoured
2003 is not yet history, but one sporting organisation has already made its selection for the record books. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods has the story.
Fiona Humes-Gonzalez, Top Female Cyclist
“It was rough, but looking at the cheque and the recognition I have received, it was worth it and I planned to work harder next year for my team.”
Keith Enwright, Top Junior Cyclist
“I’ll try to train harder for 2004 cause I am going to senior right. So I’ll just train harder to compete with the bigger guys them.”
Ernest Meighan, Top Male Cyclist
“As you know, it’s not the first time I have won the cyclist of the year award, it’s the fifth time. And without the strength and power of God and I would like to thank him.”
No matter how many times an athlete excels in sports, the victory is double sweet when they are additionally awarded for their accomplishment. That was the case this afternoon for the three cyclists of the year, Fiona Humes-Gonzales, Keith Enwright, and Ernest “Jawmeighan” Meighan.
Gerald Garbutt, President, National Cycling Association
“I see it very important in the sense that once you have an award like the cyclist of the year, they ride to a different level because that’s an achievement for them on the road and it accumulates points, so we have a point system at the end of the year coming to the end of the calendar year for cycling so we can determine from very early who is in the lead and who is not in the lead.”
The leaders in the cycling arena were awarded money, trophies, and a scholarship from Shell Belize Limited. Humes-Gonzales received a trophy and a thousand dollars. Enwright got a four-year scholarship to any local educational institution, while Meighan received a trophy and a cheque for fifteen hundred dollars.
Joe Habet, Country Representative, Shell Belize LTD
“I think in most big companies like ourselves, there’s always a social investment, we try to give back to our community. I think sports is very important, whereby the youth can share their talent and we try to encourage that.”
Belize Cycling Association President, Gerald Garbutt, says their calendar of events has just been completed and the public has at least ten highly competitive races to look forward to… starting off with the annual KREM New Year’s Day Cycling Classic.
Gerald Garbutt
“Coming off on the first of January it will be the KREM Classic. We are still in the making of a complete package for the KREM classic, with station prizes and we need to do some talk to KREM’s people about some little adjustments that we see. Fit they’re willing we’ll work with that, but it’s the master’s prize we are worrying about, to get that going. Because a lot of the senior riders become of age now at thirty-five where they cross over to masters. So you’ll find out a lot of the name brand riders have moved on to masters. So the masters fleet with be pretty sizeable.”
Garbutt encourages the business community to support Belizean sports and the athletes. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
