Clay­ton Clarke

Sea­soned dis­tance run­ner Cur­tis Cox was again in im­pres­sive form cap­tur­ing the run­ner up spot in the 28th An­nu­al Run Bar­ba­dos Marathon in Bridgetown, Bar­ba­dos on Sun­day.The vet­er­an lo­cal run­ner clocked two hours 44 min­utes and 12 sec­onds to reg­is­ter his fourth con­sec­u­tive top five fin­ish in the pres­ti­gious Run Bar­ba­dos Se­ries which at­tract­ed run­ners from all over the world. Cox was de­nied vic­to­ry by Kenya's Richard Kessio, who won in 2:36:58 to cap­ture his sec­ond straight Ba­jan ti­tle. Kessio has a re­ward­ing week tak­ing the 10K on Sat­ur­day. Pa­menos Bal­lan­tyne was third.Ar­jen Rei­jnierse (17th), Ramesh Kassie (20th), Jo­nannes Van Iersel (24th), John Lum Young (28th) and Bhar­doe Kan­hai (43rd) were the oth­er men's T&T fin­ish­ers in the 26.2 mile run.

Cox im­proved on his fourth place fin­ish last year and 2009 and ex­tend his top three plac­ing in his re­cent races. The 43-year- old was third in the NAAA Cross Coun­try Cham­pi­onships on No­vem­ber 27th and al­so at the South Amer­i­can 10K run in Guyana on No­vem­ber 20th.Wendy Shal­low was the top lo­cal women's marathon­er tak­ing fifth place in (3:52:49). Leah Ki­gen (Kenya) grabbed the top spot in 3:04:47 ahead of an­oth­er Kenyan Judy Kimuge (3:12:06) as the duo fin­ished fifth and sixth over­all. Amer­i­can Alexa Dick­er­son and Are­i­ta Mar­tin (Ja­maica) all got to the line ahead of Shal­low.In the 10K run, con­test­ed on Sat­ur­day, TT women filled five of the ten top po­si­tions among Caribbean ath­letes with Sophia Pereira lead­ing the way in third (41:41). Young Zara Suite-Stew­art was fifth (47.14) ahead of De­bra Agong, sixth, (50:15), Su­san­nah Joe­field, eighth, (52:50) and Tere­sa Rose­mond ninth (54:24).

Guyana's Ali­ka Mor­gan was the win­ner in 40:07 ahead of Are­i­ta Mar­tin of Ja­maica, (41:03). In the men's equiv­a­lent Nelin­ho Mierez was the first TT run­ner to cross the line fin­ished eighth (37:47) with Michael Pol­li­por in tenth. Ja­maican Shawn Pit­ter cap­tured the race (31:31) beat­ing the Guyanese pair of Cleve­land Forde (32:47) and Kelvin John­son (33:25) in­to the mi­nor spots.Mierez (18th) and Pol­li­por (20th) were the top lo­cal fin­ish­ers in the half marathon on Sun­day.

RE­SULTS

MARATHON

Men (Open)

1 Richard Kessio Kenya 2:36;58

2 Cur­tis Cox Trinidad and To­ba­go 2:44:12

3 Pa­menos Bal­lan­tyne St. Vin­cent & Grenadines 2:45:52

17 Ar­je Rei­jnierse Trinidad and To­ba­go 5:58:59

24 Jo­hannes Van Iersel Trinidad and To­ba­go 4:19:59

28 John Lum Young Trinidad and To­ba­go 4:33:10

43 Bhar­doe Kan­hai Trinidad and To­ba­go 5:24:44

Women (Open)

1 Leah Ki­gen Kenya 3:04:47

2 Judy Kimuge Kenya 3:12:06

3 Alexa Dick­er­son USA 3:42:09

4 Ari­eta Mar­tin Ja­maica 3:52:48

5 Wendy Shal­low Trinidad and To­ba­go 3:58:49

10K

Women (Caribbean)

1 Ali­ka Mor­gan Guyana 40:07

2 Are­i­ta Mar­tin Ja­maica 41:03

3 Sophia Pereira Trinidad and To­ba­go 41:41

5 Zara Suite-Stew­art Trinidad and To­ba­go 47:14

6 De­bra Agong Trinidad and To­ba­go 50:15

8 Su­san­nah Joe­field Trinidad and To­ba­go 52:50

9 Tere­sa Rose­mond Trinidad and To­ba­go 54:24

Men (Caribbean)

1 Shawn Pit­ter Ja­maica 31:31

2 Cleve­land Forde Guyana 32:47

3 Kelvin John­son Guyana 33:25

8 Nelin­ho Mierez Trinidad and To­ba­go 37:47

10 Michael Pol­li­por Trinidad and To­ba­go 39:41

15 Nim­chan Ram­sa­roop Trinidad and To­ba­go 46:05

17 Alex­ei Viar­ru­el Trinidad and To­ba­go 47:36

18 Trevor Ben­jamin Trinidad and To­ba­go 48:04