Over $40,000 in prizes will be up for grabs when the Degree Madonna Wheelers Cycling Club hosts its third annual Nathan Hajal Memorial event at King George V Park, St Clair, on Sunday. Some of the country's top cyclists, including Njisane Phillip, brothers Adam and Joshua Alexander, Mark Codrington, Varun Maharaj and Rudy Ashton will take part in the event which will last from 2 pm to 6 pm. This was announced at during a press conference at CIC Insurance Brokers Limited in Port-of-Spain yesterday where the event's main sponsor Beacon Insurance Company Limited presented the club with a cheque worth $18,000.
Hajal, who was killed in a motorcycle accident on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in 2007, was a member of Madonna Wheelers for over 40 years and represented T&T in cycling during the 1960s and 1970s.
The Club's president Barry Edghill said that while his presence was sorely missed, Hajal's legacy would live on through the staging of the annual event. "Nathan was a shining example for young people and he lived for the club," he said. "That's how we want him to be remembered." Beacon Insurance's Manager of Corporate Communications Kristian Kong said that the company, the sport's largest corporate sponsor in T&T, wished to maintain its commitment to cycling well into the future.
"When Beacon started sponsoring cycling over a decade ago, we wanted to re-energise the sport in T&T," he said. "We continue to expand in several areas through festivals, triathlons and individual sponsorships... and we hope to continue to be a feature of cycling in the Caribbean and lend support to every generation of cyclists."
The event will feature 18 races catering to athletes of all ages. Chief among them will be the Open 45 Minutes and Two Laps in which the winner will purse $1,000, the runner up, $850, and third place, $600. The entry fee for Seniors, Vets, Juniors, Ladies Over 16 and Unregistered Over 16s will be $20 while the Juveniles, Tinymites, Ladies Under 16, Unregistered Under 16s and BMX can enter for free.
