Team Santino conquers in cycling
Good evening. I’m James Adderley and this is another version of Sports Monday. The Santino’s Cycle Classic has become a mainstay on the September Celebrations calendar and yesterday’s big time card brought out the fans in joves.
We join the action in the final opener with 4 laps to go as Camille Solis and Norma Nuñez battle each other for the lead. At tape time its 4 of the 5 that started making the move – but it’s 4 time Cross Country Champion Camille Solis who gets the “W” forcing Norma Nuñez into second, and arch rival Fiona Humes into third.
We go now to the 12 laps inter-office finish. The race is between Troy Burns and Fitzgerald “Palas” Joseph. Burns edges the veteran Palas to take the ride in 31 minutes, 37 seconds.
Meanwhile in the junior, 16 laps brought out a bunch of youths as the start indicates. In the sprint to the tape, Jose Choto of Cayo turns on the after burners to edge Enert Crawford and force Kareem Flowers into third.
This brings us to the over 40 race and yes, Santi Castillo is looking to take his own prize. However, the title lies between these 2 riders streaking to the tape and Lawrence Craig takes it away from Charles Bruce easily. But watch Santino take his man to finish third and we say congratulations.
Now here’s the start of the main event, a 50-lap feature that has attracted most of the elite in the cycling community. And they’re off! About 6 laps deep Chris Federicks, the American, and Mateo Cruz both of Santino’s create this break away that would impact the finish. It’s still early in the race when the 2 leaders pull in teammate Ernest Meighan, who might just be Belize’s best cyclist. Even more troublesome for the pelathon is the coming together of 7 Santino riders to take the lead. Hey wait a minute, is this why Andrew Smiling is quitting the race? Let’s listen in.
Andrew Smiling
“Everybody di complain bout da man. I no wah fall down. I stop. I stop. Nobody no wah throw me down and hurt me, my bwai.”
Who is Smiling talking about? Well it didn’t take long to find out as a fan of Smiling tackles James “Cocky” Welch and we are grateful that the law intervenes to keep the action from spilling over.
But it’s back to the main event and at the tape it’s Ernest Meighan with the “W” in an all Santino finish. Chris Federicks took second, Ian Smith third, Mateo Cruz fourth, Bobby Lee fifth, Douglas Lamb sixth while Grant Potter rounds out the top seven and yes, Santino gets an early Christmas gift.
Ernest Meighan, Winner
“Santino wanted 1,2,3,4,5. Ah seh chief, it’s impossible. We gwin try do it for him. Other guys wasn’t in good shape so this morning we had a meeting and we seh we can do it. So we just set up to start hard in the race. All of us stared in front of the line and just went hard and then the good guys will be there.
I won this race two times and Ian is the defending champion and I really wanted Ian to win this race. Santino said he wanted a sprint finish and I really neva want no American to win. If Ian was out there first, I would have let him take it but he wasn’t there. So we can’t make no foreigners take it because Belizeans are gonna be really upset. Ian wasn’t there so I just had to take it.”
Changing gears folks, it’s a brand new B.F.L. season of professional soccer and yesterday’s opening at the M.C.C. finds Acros facing Yabra in a battle of city teams. It’s early in the ball game when number 6 gets the opportunity to give Acros a 1-zip lead but the far upright plays good defense for Yabra. Yabra gets its chance to score when new addition Deron Jones centers into the damper zone but the finish is lacking. Acros again looks to move the scoreboard but the launch by David Rodriguez hits the crossbar and at the half it remains a scoreless ball game.
In second half Acros goes to the long distance dial for offense but John Trapp’s launch is pushed out by Ferguson. David McCauley, now with Yabra, tries to give his team the lead with this shot but the goalkeeper saves which leads to a scoreless finish.
In other B.F.L. action yesterday Real Verdes edged Juventud Benqueña 3-2 out west.
We wanna thank all our cameramen for their great work this weekend. Jah over all. I’m James Adderley.
