media_artricles :: 2013

Jehue to start UWI Half-Marathon

JEHUE GORDON, the Trinidad and Tobago and world 400-metre hurdles champion Jehue Gordon will be firing the pistol on Sunday to start the 10th annual University of the West Indies (UWI) SPEC (Sports and Physical Education Centre) International Half-Marathon.

Gordon, who is enrolled at UWI, will be sending the runners on their way at 5.50 am at the UWI SPEC, with the runners heading east on the Priority Bus Route to La Resource, D’Abadie, and then back to the UWI facility.

Over 1,000 runners from 12 countries are registered to compete, including reigning men’s and women’s champions — George Towett, an American-based Kenyan, and TT’s Tonya Nero.

Towett will be guaranteed tough challenges from defending Run Barbados Half-Marathon champ Richard Kessio (another Kenyan runner who trains in the United States), seven-time TT Marathon king Pamenos Ballantyne of St Vincent, four-time Reggae Marathon winner Rupert Green of Jamaica, Cuba’s Norbert Gutierrez Curbeco, Guyana’s Lionel Dandrade and a trio of top national long-distance runners — Curtis Cox, Jules La Rode and Richard Jones.

Nero has been successful at a number of long-distance races locally, during the past few years.

But Mary Akor, the Nigeria-born American who won the 2009 event, as well as the TT Marathon on seven occasions, will be seeking to reclaim the title. And, another top female runner listed to run is Venezuela’s Karla Urbina Rojas. In the Open category, the respective men’s and women’s champions will each pocket US$2,000, with the runners-up getting $1,000, the third- placed finishers US$800, the fourth-placed runners US$500 and fifth- placed finishers US$300.

According to a media release from the Half-Marathon’s technical director Raymond Chin Assang, “the race also serves as the NAAA National Half Marathon Championships where the prizes are $1,500, $1,000 and $500 (apiece) plus trophies.”

Veteran Dwight Yearwood will feature in the Physically Challenged category and, as far as the ‘senior citizens’ are concerned, 89-year-old Charles Spooner and 75-year-old Ruth Frazer-Moore are the oldest entrants in the respective men’s and women’s sections.

There will be a Team/Club category, with the scoring done by adding the times of the top 15 finishers from each team or club. In related news, to mark the tenth anniversary of the race, ten persons will run for ten different charities, and the public can donate to those charities.

For more information and codes for all ten charities, persons can log on to
www.sta.uwi.edu/ spec/marathon/the10.asp.

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