media_artricles :: 2016

Olympic champion for UWI half marathon

Olympic gold medallist Kenya's Jemima Sumgong, who made her first appearance at the University of the West Indies Sports and Physical Education (UWI-Spec) International Half Marathon in 2006, will be back to add that title to the medal she won in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August, on Sunday from 5:30am.

The race which starts and finishes in front the UWI Spec Facility at the St Augustine Campus, will take runners up the traffic-free Priority Bus Route to La Resource Junction in D'Abadie and back. Sumgong is no stranger to the event and will be hoping to add her Olympic experience to cash in on the $16,500 winner's prize for both men and women.

The soft-spoken Kenyan set a time of one hour, 12 minutes 8 seconds (1:12.08), which still stands as the course record but inspite of her achievements at the Olympics as well as her triumph at the London Marathon, there will be no guarantees as her compatriot Caroline Kiptoo and T&T's Tonya Nero are both eager to claim the title.

Kiptoo, the 2014 and 2015 female champion who hails from Mexico has confirmed her defence, while Nero's challenge will be three-pronged, as apart from her personal ambitions of winning and attempting to break the record, she will also try to stop the dominance of the foreign invasion over he past decade.

Cuba's Olympic runner Richer Perez, who won the men's title last year, will be trying for a repeat. His victory was the first by a Caribbean athlete in the midst of the foreign dominance and he is promising much of the same, come Sunday.

UWI principal professor Brian Copeland will send the 1300-plus registered runners on their way and officials are offering a bonus of US$1, 000 for any runner who breaks a record. Sumgong's 10 year record seems to have been cast in concrete, along with the male course record of 1:05:07 set by Kenyan Ernest Kimeli.

T&T's veteran long distance runner Curtis Cox, at 48 years will again attempt to fly the T&T flag with grace, as he has done so many times in the past but this time he will have the support of last year's top local finisher Matthew Hagley, UWI graduate Collin Pereira and Tobago's Elvis Turner and Kade Sobers.

This year's 13th edition will again be sponsored by First Citizens but for the first time, it will be the official National Half Marathon Championship of the National Association of Athletic Administration (NAAAs). Apart from the T&T athletes, the event will also feature five-time Reggae Marathon champion Rupert Green and top Guyanese runners Kelvin Johnson and Lionel Dandrade.

Out of Venezuela will be Alexis Peña who has run three half-marathons in T&T in the past year, as well as Fabian Leting of Kenya, a newcomer to the race who is a grandson of the great Kipchoge Keino who won the 1,500 metres gold medal at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

Over $150,000 in cash prizes are at stake. The top five prizes in the Open/International Category for male and female are $16,500, $11,900, $8,000, $5,300 and $3,300. The Team/Club Category prizes are $8,000, $4,000 and $3,000. The NAAA National prizes are $1,500, $1,000 and $500.

There is a $5,000 incentive for a T&T male going under 1 hour 10 minutes, and likewise, the bonus for a T&T female running sub-1:17:30 is $5,000. There will also be UWI and University prizes, eight age-groups and wheel-chair, physically challenged and Special Olympics categories.

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