345AC 5 x 1m Tropical Relay Challenge 2019

Another great relay organised by 345 Athletic Club and sponsored again by local law firm McGrath Tonner and with 14 more teams than last year this race is building in popularity and there an increase of 70 more participants.

The relay has three divisions – an ‘All Female’ division (16 teams), a ‘Corporate’ division (16 teams) with all other teams being placed in the ‘Open’ division (26 teams). The race starts outside the Boxing gym and runs clockwise around Leguinea Circle, turn right on Olympic Way, passing the Swimming pool, making a u-turn outside the Truman Bodden Sports Complex and up the path between the pool and track back to the start line.  

Lap 1 – Carifta athlete Victor Magalhaes takes the lead from the get-go and stays there from start to finish and heads home in the fastest time of the day (5:00.0) giving his team ‘345AC Dreadful’ a solid 35 second lead ahead of fellow Club runner Josh Weaver (345AC The Avengers) who powered through in 5:35.1. A close battle for the next few positions with Matt Volkwyn (345AC Blazers) and Enrico Carmassi (Catch Restaurant) fighting it out for 3rd and 4th respectfully. Immediately following was fastest female runner of the day Ava Hider (345AC Gurls) in 5:49.5 who placed her team ahead in the Female division.

Lap 2 – taking over from Victor was another Carifta athlete Levi Superville who finished within 2 seconds of Victor’s time to not only be the second quickest of the day in 5:01.8 but placed 345AC Dreadful well ahead of the rest and the race was almost won after just 2 miles. Wyatt Bodden worked his team (345AC Blazers) into second place with a decent time of 5:35.0, with Robert Szalk time of 5:35.3 moving Movers for Life Inspiration up the pecking order. Kyra Rabess was fastest female leg 2 runner who took the baton from Ava and extended the 345AC Gulrs’ lead in the Female Div.  

Lap 3 – Aldene Skyes (Movers for Life Pata Team) recorded the quickest time but made an error and cut the lap short. Sorry to advise that you did NOT break the female world record for the mile as first thought. In fact it was Jack Paolini (CISs), Abraham Whittaker (345AC Dreadful) and James Crooks (345AC Blazers) all ran the third mile within 4 tenths of a second of each other for the fastest three spots. Michelle Vinton (Harmonic 2) was fastest female leg 3 runner in 6:34.0.

Lap 4 – saving a huge mishap, it was clear after three laps that 345AC Dreadful were very unlikely to be caught as Abraham, Whittaker handed the baton to Island Games hopeful Tiffany Cole who ran the second fastest female lap of the day being just 2 tenths of a second away from Ava’s lap 1 time. Quickest lap 4 time went to Javier Perez who cemented 345AC Blazers second spot with his time of 5:39.0 whilst Catch Restaurant’s Shemar Brady’s time of 5:48.7 ensured this team was in a prominent position in the Corporate division.  

Lap 5 – no surprise that Island Games hopeful Sherlock Brooks kept 345AC Dreadful way ahead of the rest as he clocked thrird quickest time of the day in 5:08.5. Carifta athlete Juan Pablo Valerio secured second place for 345AC Blazers with a fast time of 5:12.5, whilst Daniel Cargill’s time of 5:23.8 for Harmonic 1 ensured the corporate division would be an exciting finish for the top spots. The fastest three females on the last lap were three who had already ran one leg, Kyra, Ava and Tiffany.

Open Division – 345AC Dreadful (Victor Magalhaes, Levi Superville, Abraham Whittaker, Tiffany Cole and Sherlock Brooks) were streets ahead of the rest winning in a time of 26:37.6. Second was 345AC Blazers (Matt Volkwyn, Wyatt Bodden, James Crooks, Javier Perez and Juan Pablo Valerio) in 27:48.2, whilst Movers for Life Inspiration (Paul Williams, Robert Szalk, Winston Sobers, Jeromoni Patrice and Yazzer Abdullah) were an impressive thrird in 29:26.3

All Female division – 345AC Gurls (Ava Hider, Kyra Rabess, Charlotte Kerr, Daoireann Lynch and Tiffany Cole) were a long way ahead and winning in 31:28.4. Second team home was ‘Don’t Underestimate the Old Birds’ (Emily Harrison, Jenny Coleman, Elaine Anderson, Rebekah Brooks andDoris Avalos) completed in 35:44.9 and ‘Movers for Life – Conquerers’ third (Cara Henessy, Tracey Walker, Mercyline Chemutai, Sayda Hernandez and Melanie Johnson) in 36:24.2

Corporate Division – was won by Harmonic 1 (Alex Johnson, Killian Everard, Ian Ballard, Jason Keating and Daniel Cargill) who were also third place overall in 29:25.8. Catch Restaurant (Enrico Carmassi, Alex Martinez, Ricky Crisontomo, Shemar Brady and Raheem Bennet) proved their worth in second in 30:21.5 with Deloitte FAS and Furious third in 33:04.6.

Thanks as always to our volunteers who take car of refreshments, marshaling, registration and timekeeping. A huge thanks to the title sponsor McGrath Tonner for covering race costs and sponsoring the event for the third successive year, to the Boxing Gym who allowed us to use the facilities and to all those entities who provided raffle prizes such as Godfrey Enterprizes, the Squash Club and the Lobster Pot.