Smiling wins Belmopan Cycling Classic
Good evening I’m James Adderley and this is Sports Monday. The 19th Belmopan Cycle Classic attracted riders from North America, Mexico and Guatemala, as some eighty riders made a bid.
We take you to the early morning sights and sounds at the start of the in front of Santos Diaz on Central American Boulevard, and they’re all here: Quinton Hamilton, Gustavo Carillo, Chris Fredericks, Shane Vasquez – except for the defending champion from Scott Mercer, who did not arrive from the U.S. for race time.
And of course they’re off en route to Belmopan where they’ll swing back to Belize City in order to complete the one hundred mile journey.
As a matter of fact we have the grand entrance of the lead trio into the Marion Jones Sporting Complex. And it’s Miguel Perez of Guatemala, Gerardo Castillo of Mexico and that wily veteran, Andrew Smiling, who won the inaugural ride nineteen years ago.
We go to the sprint and it’s Perez on the pace, the Mexican Castillo attacks on the outside and has the lead on the straightaway, but watch Andrew Smiling turn up the heat to grab the W and capture his second Belmopan Classic. Gerardo Castillo pulls up second while Miguel Perez rolls in third.
Francisco “The Animal” Flores who came up with his best performance in a long while finishes fourth, while the young sensation Ariel Rosado, who had to really hang on to the lead pack, took fifth place.
Now watch another veteran big Mike Lewis whip the field for sixth place beating out Mateo Cruz and Gustavo Carillo in that order.
Andrew Smiling, Winner
“The guy, Gerardo Castillo, he’s fast. He won numerous races in Mexico and I knew he was fast. But then again, he closed a tremendous gap, we had a one minute twenty-seven seconds gap with about ten miles to go and he caught us around mile three, which is a? and we we’re going slow, we were actually keeping up the pace high he bridged across. So I knew he was kid of tired, so I just waited until he made his move in the track and I just came around at the end.”
“I had help from my teammate the Guatemalan Miguel Perez. He was the one actually covering for me down the stretch and he did most of the work down the stretch to cover the so-called professional. Anyway, I have to say we are the Belizean professionals and when you are on my turf you have to deal with our riders.
James Adderley
“You have proved all your detractors wrong, you have finally come back to be the guy you were, what made you such a powerful figure today?”
Francisco Flores, 4th Place
“Well, after my two years with the Jamis Team, I’ve helped them a lot during that period of time, but after leaving the team, I said I’ll just have to try and do things on my own with all the support from my other team members, which I’ve just recently recruited along with Fred Usher, Elbert Pope and George Abraham. We trained together and we try to make this race come together so that we can really come for with a victory.”
Of course folks, this is the Mexican Edwardo Uribe – holder of the Pan Am time trial record riding for Santino’s Jamis, who the Cycling Association allowed to participate first, then changed their mind in middle stream, which is obviously unprofessional and unacceptable. We want to thank Santino for translating.
Edwardo Uribe
“I am not a professional and in fact if I was I wouldn’t even come to Belize. I would be in Europe where the professionals participate. I only came to Belize at an invitation by Mr. Santino to participate on his amateur team, which is what I am.”
“What happened is that I started the race, everything was fine until mile twenty when all of a sudden they asked me to please come out of the race. This was very shocking to me because of course, one you start a race, it is not right for you to be taken out of the race. They were physically abusive to me, to the point of grabbing me by my helmet and trying to drag me off my bike. They tried to knock me off my bike. They tried to knock me off the road and what made this most scary was that I was in a pelathon with some other guys who had nothing to do this and who could have similarly been injured.”
Changing gears, let’s go to the Penta Road King 5k which got off at 7:00 a.m. at the Yabra Green on Friday. Road racing president, Linsford Castillo gives the runners their final instructions and they’re off.
Immediately Aubrey Solomon sprints and here he is putting on a burst to emerge the overall winner in 16 minutes 1.57 seconds. Victor Martin finishes second overall in 16:27:71, but takes top honours in the twenty to twenty-nine male category. And here comes Louis Haulze, the third place overall winner who takes the thirty to thirty-three male class in 17:03:14.
Now here’s the overall female winner Denise Street, a former basketballer, who was clocked at 24:38:29. Crystal Allen takes the under eighteen female title in 25:06:02. Erla Cuthkelvin wins the fifteen to nineteen female class in 29:09:51. At twenty to twenty-nine female class it’s Adelma Broaster in the winners circle. At thirty to thirty-five it’s Rosemarie Barrow taking top honours. At thirty-five and over female Lisa Grinage walks away with the top prize.
On the male side Eric Avila took first place in under fifteen class. Wilhelm Bailey picks up the first place trophy for the forty to forty-four category. Now give your respects to Lius Gill and Anthony Christie who finished first and second in the over sixty class.
Turning to the University of Belize relathon, here’s this look at the male team, which started at 7:00 a.m. from San Ignacio on Friday en route to Belize City. Their opponents today are the UB female students.
This is what the actual event looks like on the road for the males, and of course the females have their own game plans today.
However, it’s at mile two that the guys overtake the girls as they go on to win the 22nd edition of the relathon by only one minute in a time of 7 hours 17 minutes.
Finally in football news, week eighteen of the BFL season saw Sagitun edge Real Verdes 1-zip. Builders Bandits and Lazio Jumex struggled to a scoreless draw. Kulture Yabra was held to 4-4 tie by Jube Santa Elena. Juventus and Griga Tropical draw 1-1. Metro Stars hurt Acros 2-nil, Acros is out of it now, while Caye Caulker Turquoise clobbered Yabra Dolphins 6-zip.
That’s our show for today, we invite you back some time, same place next week.
