Guatemalan-American take Cross Country
Good evening I’m James Adderly and welcome to this post Easter portion of Sports Monday. The brilliance of the Belizean sunrise coupled with the wide array of colours worn by the athletes brought a magical picture to start the 72nd Annual Cross Country Cycle Classic staged on Saturday. About a 130 riders including cyclists from five other countries are in the hunt today and of course they’re off.
An early breakaway speeds through the station prize at Hattieville, but it Gregg Medinilla of Sunflower Auto Sales hailing from the Dominican Republic, who grabs the money. At Gracie Rock, Jeffrey Zelaya of Bel-Chi makes his move and while it’s a success it would not have any impact on the final results.
A new player emerged at the Belmopan junction as John Cipolla of Santino’s Jammis starts a one man run that would take him all the way to Mt. Hope, which means he took all preemies, en-route and for now Santino is in the drivers seat.
However, at Mt. Hope Gregg Medinilla mounted this historic challenge and moved in to grab some stuff for himself. The pair then join forces sharing the station prizes in an effort to make the 2-man breakaway stick and here is Medinilla grabbing the halfway mark as the two head out of San Ignacio.
On the way back to Belize City, at Roaring Creek, the lead duo remains on the pace but of course a determined chase group now has them in his sights. Here that chase group that includes Andrew Smiling, Quinton Hamilton, Gustavo Carillo, Ben Jones and Ernest Meighan. For Ernest Meighan though, the pace becomes unbearable and the “Golden Boy” is left out of the chase coming to money-time.
These three riders Chris Fredericks, Gregg Medinilla and young Ariel Rosado are making a bid to catch the lead five very late in the race. At Almond Hill, Gustavo Carillo beats out Ben Jones, Smiling, Quinton Hamilton and John Cipolla to take that station prize. Nevertheless, Gustavo Carillo is unable to shake them off his trial and all five entered Belize City.
So we go to the National Stadium for the big finish, but only Gustavo Carillo enters. He is then followed by Ben Jones, who is being tracked down by Quinton Hamilton. Andrew Smiling apparently had fallen off Cipolla’s back tire, when in front of the Stadium, while John Cipolla missed the turn into the tracks and ended up at the municipal airstrip.
This allows for an easy victory for Gustavo Carillo of Bel-Chi, who wins in 5 hours 55 minutes. Ben Jones of Smiling Meats finished 2nd, Quinton Hamilton gave Belize its best finish at 3rd, Andrew Smiling after the fall had to settle for 4th, while Cipolla after making that big mistake to municipal, recovers in time to take 5th place. Gregg Medinilla takes 6th beating out last years champ Chris Fredericks. It’s Windy Cruz of the Dominican Republic, riding for Team Cobra who pulls up 8th, Steve Mlujeak 9th, while the Guatemalan rider for Bel-Chi Miguel Perez rounds out the top 10.
Gustavo Carillo, 1st, Cross Country Classic
“I feel really good, everything finally came together for me. You need not only to be in good condition, and strong for this race, you need support, you need a good team and you need luck too. Everything went well for me today, no flats, good feed. The team was right there, Mark and the strong guys and I’m really happy for this victory.”
James Adderly
“I know you must be disappointed after doing such a yeoman’s work, getting to the tape, making a wrong turn. How could that happen? Didn’t you check the course before? Wasn’t somebody there, some official to direct you? You must feel some sort of disappointment and disgust?”
John Cipolla, 5th, Cross Country Classic
“If you saw me at the finish, you could see it, definitely. There were no officials or any police or anything to show me the correct way. As you know, this is the first time that I have done this race.”
James Adderly
“So Andrew slipped on your wheel?”
John Cipolla
“Yes.”
James Adderly
“And you were the one who took the wrong turn?”
John Cipolla
“I took the turn into the dirt road, made a U-turn, went back out down the road looking for this track and nobody directed me in the right way to go.”
James Adderly
“John, will you be back to improve on what you’ve done here today, because obviously your name goes down in the history books for that big performance in the hills?”
John Cipolla
“Well you know, I wanna be humble and everything like that, but next year I’ll take this one.”
James Adderly
“Ariel, on the road we saw you challenge the big boys. You were in the bunch of three that was chasing the big five. What happened?”
Ariel Rosado, Junior Champion, Cross Country Classic
“Honestly, like I said before, I don’t have the full experience that I would like to have going into races like these and I just…coming down there by Hattieville with those guys, I just took a wicked beating and I don’t know what do. I was trying to stay with them, trying to stay with them, hoping they could bridge the gap but around nine there I couldn’t handle it and I had to ease out and set my own pace until the guys in my fellow present batch came and I jumped onto them. But other than that I was in real pain and I couldn’t keep up.”
Meanwhile folks, we didn’t get footage of the female finish but here’s the new and reigning female champion–Violet Morrison– teacher at Wesley College, who beat out veteran Fiona Humes.
Changing gears folks here is Ian Grey becoming the over all winner in Holy Saturday’s 5K run inside the National Stadium. He wins in 16 minutes 57 seconds. 26 seconds later, the local favorite, Joseph Carr pulls up 2nd, but first in the 30 to 39 years category, Louis Halls pulls up 3rd overall. Here is the overall female winner Anamarie Bennett who posted a time of 23 minutes 4 seconds. And in the over 60 class, it’s Hugh Gillett taking the prize in 26 minutes 54 seconds.
In football news, Sagitun is the new leader in the BFL Playoffs, after hurting Grigamandala 2-1 at San Pedro. The Dolphins handed Kulture Yabra its 2nd consecutive loss; this time in a 2-nil affair while at Cayo Real Verdes out lasted La Victoria 2-1.
Hey folks, things are happening fast and furious inside the BFL Football match-ups. Of course we are gonna keep you posted with four games going to decide who gets into the championship round. Right now the scramble continues. That’s it we wanna thank our cameramen for their great work over the weekend.
