Grace Kennedy's John Donaldson captured the gold medal at the CariFin Cross Country and Family Day held at the Sevilla Golf Course, Couva last Sunday. Donaldson added the feat after winning the Green Mile and Chancellor Challenge, both held in April. He was followed behind by race debutante, Akil Simon of Central Bank of T&T. In third place was Mark Thomas, who is no stranger to the CariFin games. Unfortunately, four time CariFin cross country winner Nikosi Mc Leish was unavailable for Sunday's event due to injury. Had Mc Leish participated and finished in first at the event, he would have been the only person to win the event five times straight. Mc Leish shares the record on four straight titles with Lander Rodney and Curtis Cox. The runners covered a distance of 2.2 kilometres which saw the men covering the distance three times and the women twice.
However, RBC/ RBTT were best represented women teams which had two of the top three finishers in Salisha Julien, who finished first (over two minutes ahead of the nearest challengers) and Karen James-Begg in third place. Crystal Ann Awai of GHL came in second place. Awai, who placed first in the previous two years of the event, did well to finish in second place considering she was recovering from a hamstring injury. In the walking race, Hollis Granville of GHL returned to the event in a convincing gold medal finish followed by Deodath Harrikissoon of FirstCitizens.
Paulette Thompson from Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) came away victorious among the women followed by an entrant for Ms Carifin, FirstCitizen's Carla Questelle-Forde. Esla Anthony of CBTT, who was among the top women competitors in all of Caifin's events this year easily came away with the Fun Run title in front of Thompson (BOJ) and Laurie Prescott of GHL. In the men's Fun Run, Naipaul Smith of RBC/RBTT held the lead within 15 metres of the finish line before veteran Harold Begg of RBC/RBTT finally caught up to take the title. Stephen Hart finished in third.