ATHLETES from the western town of Soufriere (District 8) continued to dominate the 2015 school sports with wins Thursday for the Bouton R. C. Boys Primary and the Soufriere Primary Schools in the three kilometre race.
ZidanRegis ofBouton Primary won in a time of 12 minutes 31 seconds and ChrisanAelivique of Soufriere Primary in 14 minutes 10. 03 seconds in the boys and girls categories respectively .
The event that started outside the Gros Islet Fire Station saw 120 athletes representing six districts run eastward up to the WASCO Treatment Plant, into Bella Rosa and finish outside the Gros Islet Secondary School.
At the start Steven Octave from Babonneau Primary took the lead among the boys and held on up until the bottom of the Bella Rosa hill before fading away allowing Regis, running bare feet, to take charge and never look back.
Coming in second among the boys was Octave from District 3 in a time of 12 minutes 42 seconds and third was ShaquanPreville from District 4 in 12 minutes 44 seconds.
Nine year old ChrisanAelivique said the race was an easy one for her and was excited that she was the first girl to cross the finish line. After her win she declared: “I am going to jump”.
Coming in second place in the girls category was Stacy Daniel from District 3 in a time of 14 minutes 59 seconds and third McCollough Girard also from District 3 in a time of 15 minutes 14 seconds.
Not so shy at all, 10 year old Regis said: “I feel great, I am happy. I did not train because last week I won a race in Soufriere so I said I was not going to train. The route was a good one, but the hills killed me”.
Regis ran the entire route without shoes. Asked why, his reply was: “I just hate running with shoes”.
Youth and Sports Officer Isabel Marquis said the event went fairly well. She added: “As anything else with a road race, you cannot predict what happens on the way with teams coming from the south. From all indications, the race started off well; there were no incidents, no casualties in terms of children fainting, passing out, none of those kinds of things. Everyone is satisfied and everyone completed the race”.
Asked about the ministry’s plans for 2016, Marquis replied: “In the second term we have the Massy United Insurance Under – 19 Schools Cricket, Under – 20 male and female volleyball. The different schools will be having their inter-district track and field events and the grand inter secondary school final is in March. This year we were successful in getting the road race out of the way very early so we can concentrate on the track and field events in the second term.”
