Hamilton wins Valentine’s Classic
Good evening I’m James Adderley and it is my privilege to welcome you to this fresh serving of Sports Monday. Valentine’s Day has become synonymous with great cycling in Belize and this sport certainly attracts great fans, in fact, we’ll go as far as sensational fans.
Just in case you don’t know, we’re at the Constitution Park in Belize City Sunday morning, as seven riders have broken away from a pack and are sprinting to the finish line.
On the pace is the defending champion Quinton “The Baddest” Hamilton, who grabs his second Valentine’s title in three hours, forty-three minutes, shaving off some seventeen minutes from last year’s victory ride, and yes you’re the baddest.
Team-mate Andrew Smiling hangs on for second place, forcing arch rival Ernest Meighan into third. Francisco “The Animal” Flores pulls up fourth, Ernest “Dangalang” Thurton grabs fifth, Domingo Gonzales finishes sixth, while the workman Armando Robles from Mexico rounds out the top seven.
Quinton Hamilton, Winner
“The final finish was kind of good, you got to be smart coming down the last two miles. I already knew Jamil would be staying behind Andrew Smiling, and the last two kilometres he kept four men down. So Andrew keeping four man down is going to be better for me, because he got to close four guys and then he had to close his own team-mate Ernest Thurton. And it’s like that I ended up winning the race, because it’s just brains. It’s been wonderful because it’s back to back and I’m trying to reach Jawmeighan calibre right now. He has won this race three times, so I have one more to go. But they say three strikes and you’re out, so I’m gonna try to win four.”
On the junior side, Ian Yearwood took top honours, Miguel Jones second and Mark Staine third. While in the female race, Fiona Humes Gonzales out-pedalled Anamarie Bennett in a head on clash.
Now lets head to the M.C.C. Grounds for the week fifteen clash between Kulture Yabra, the defending champion and Acros Real Verdes.
It’s a biggie with only three weeks to the conclusion of regular season, so the Verdes team sends a long distance message to Moody who manages.
The team from the west continues to impress with this individual attack off this right side, but Shane Moody handles. Verdes then uses this defensive effort to launch the long shot, which just sails outside the sticks.
Yabra finally goes offensive when Tilliman Nunez fires, misses and Pinelo can’t catch up. Again, its Yabra on the attack and Nunez does everything right except catch up the pill.
This time its Pinelo on the finishing end, but whatever his intentions were, the interception overrules. At the other end, Verdes looks to score and this push off the left side should have produced a goal, but Lisbey blows the opportunity. At the half, we have a scoreless ballgame.
Out of intermission, Eden Rawley gets an open look, but Darren Hinds agility defeats his attempt to score. Minutes later, Hinds is asked by his team to make another spectacular save, this time against Pinelo and again he delivers.
However, this time Darren Hinds misjudges his move and Landi Pinelo catches up with the pill for a header, which gives the city team a 1-zip lead.
Robert Muschamp then gets the opportunity to double the lead for Yabra, but this left foot misses the target. Now folks, can you believe Verdes comes away empty-handed after this particular attack, but these are the breaks.
It’s getting late now and Verdes looks to convert this spotlight only to see Moody make the save. The insurance goal for Yabra comes off this spotkick on top the eighteen that Nunez squeezes into the far corner and Yabra goes on to post the important 2-zip big W.
In other B.F.L. results from over the weekend, Griga United beat Corozal F.C. 2-1, San Pedro stopped Jacintoville 3-1, Lazio lick shot on Acros Brown Bombers 3-nil, while Juventus and Builders Bandits struggled to a 1-1 draw.
Thus after week fifteen, Griga leads with 33 points, Belmopan shows 32, Yabra 31, Juventus 29 and Real Verdes rounds out the top five with 27 points. From the big five, only four will make it to the B.F.L. playoffs this time around. So, look out for more fireworks, as three weekends more to conclude regular season play.
That’s it for now. We certainly want to thank our camera crew for their great work over the weekend. Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.
