6 sprinters to travel to Honduras for Central American Championship

When you hear about a Cross Country race, the Holy Saturday cycling classic likely comes to mind. But there’s another major Cross Country event in Belize and the rest of Central America but it involves track and field. Following a local competition, six runners have been selected to travel to Tela, Honduras for the Central American Championships on February fourth and fifth. The selection was announced today by the Belize Amateur Athletics Association. According to the association’s first vice president, Belize’s performance is expected to improve this year since the athletes had to compete for their spot in the contingent.

Deon Sutherland, 1^st Vice President, B.A.A.A.

deon sutherland

“We have been competing in this competition or this championship for the last five years. We hosted three here and last year it was in Nicaragua; this year it’s in Honduras. But this is the first year that Belize actually had a road competition—a Cross Country Competition—to select athletes to go to the meet.”

Delahnie Bain

“Who were the athletes selected?”

Deon Sutherland

“The competition was held on the fifteenth in Roaring Creek at the Roaring Creek Golf Course. There were about some thirty plus athletes that participated. Based on time and the best competitive athlete, there were six athletes selected; two in the open category Ian Cunha, a BDF and Marco Castellanos, also a BDF. We had Anthony Leslie and Denroy Nembhard. Anthony Leslie is from Wesley College and Denroy Nembhard from Ladyville Tech and that’s in the Junior A competition. And in the Junior C, we have Rhondre Lewis and Dennis Avilar from Wesley. So those are the six athletes that will be representing Belize in this competition.”

Delahnie Bain

“How have we performed in these competitions in previous years?”

Deon Sutherland

“Not too bad, but not too good; as I said, due mainly to the fact that we don’t have a competition for ourselves. So it’s basically when the athletes go, that’s when they find out how they compete. Now that we have started having a competition, I believe that our performance should get far better.”

The athletes leave Belize by road on February second and return on the seventh.