Shalini Zabaneh brings home silver from Central American Games
The cycling delegation has returned from the Central American Games in Panama. In the female road race, El Salvador and Costa Rica won gold and silver, Belize narrowly lost the bronze medal to Costa Rica. Costa Rica’s cyclist Adriana Rojas came in third with a time of one hour fifty one minutes, and thirty one point three seconds. Belize’s Gina Lovell clocked in fourth at point one second behind Rojas. A narrow loss but still a good show of competitiveness against regional riders who have access to more training time. Nonetheless, two of our athletes returned with medals in this discipline. They arrived at the Philip Goldson International Airport this morning. News Five spoke to Edward Reyes, who won bronze for the under twenty three category in the road race and Shalini Zabaneh who won Silver in the in her individual time trial.
Shalini Zabaneh, Silver Medalist, Central American Games
“It was good. I have to say everything was well organized. Belize was well taken care of. The event was good and I only managed the silver. I didn’t expect you guys to be out here.”
Jose Sanchez
“The for you experience itself, how was it going out there to represent Belize? How can you improve for the next time?”
Shalini Zabaneh
“For Central America I can definitely bring back the gold, I just have to train much harder. I’m not far away from the gold; brought the silver.”
Jose Sanchez
“The rest of the cyclists didn’t do as well but how do you see the performance as a group? What can be done for the entire group? Should they work more together? What should be done?”
Shalini Zabaneh
“The boys elite level are definitely a step below the other Central American Countries so the boys need to train together more. They need more experience as a team to train outside to be able to work together. I don’t think it’s impossible but we have to work hard at it.”
Edward Reyes, Bronze Medalist, Central American Games
“The bronze I got for was for the under twenty-three in the road race. It was a very tough race; many of our riders couldn’t finish because they either got flat or they fell and I feel good because I did great.”
Jose Sanchez
“How many people were competing in your event?”
Edward Reyes
“There were thirty-seven riders in total, I think about thirteen were under twenty-three cyclists.”
Jose Sanchez
“You mentioned some people had a flat, were they not allowed a road crew to help in those instances?”
Edward Reyes
“Yes, they were allowed mechanical service but the pace was too high and the race was going very fast so it was very hard for them to catch up.”
Jose Sanchez
“Overall, while congratulations are in order for you, the country on a whole did not do as well in the games. What can be done or what should be not only in cycling, but to improve the other disciplines that represented the country?”
Edward Reyes
“Well, national teams should be set and should be training all year round together sand I think that will develop the entire team together and allow them to work as a unit. I think that is what is lacking in national teams, that unity. So they train all year around and that should bring them that togetherness.”
Jose Sanchez
“A lot has been said regarding our local cycling and foreigners competing and they say no it should be Belizean only. Do these international games make us realize we need foreign competition?
Shalini Zabaneh,
“Definitely, I like the foreign competition. It raises our level, however, tests the limit for our cross country. We have a small field so far; one, maybe two but definitely just one from each country for now for us but for the boys, maybe not the paid fast level elite athletes that get paid to ride. It’s hard for them to compete against the guys who get paid to ride so we can’t exclude the foreigners when we’re out there, that’s who we compete against.”
Zabaneh placed eight in the road race, however she was less than four seconds behind the gold winner. Her individual time trial for which she won silver was clocked at thirty minutes and forty seconds. She said the officials timed her for a twelve mile session but her personal clock read twelve point eight miles.
