Ajani Ti­tus-Baynes and Paula Be­tan­cur won the men’s and women’s ver­sions of the Siparia Soc­cer Stars FC 5K, which took place from Syne Vil­lage to the Siparia Sports Com­plex at Ir­win Park Sa­van­nah on Sun­day. The race theme was Ho­n­our­ing Siparia Icons, and is part of the Siparia Bor­ough Day Month of ac­tiv­i­ties, which will con­clude with a Cul­tur­al Ex­trav­a­gan­za on June 28.

Baynes com­plet­ed the dis­tance in 21 min­utes and 19 sec­onds while hold­ing off Narvin Be­har­ry (22:53) and Kevon Mitchell (23:59), re­spec­tive­ly, to com­plete the top three, while Be­tan­cur stopped the clock at 32 min­utes and nine sec­onds as she kept Zaria Fer­min (32:58) and Shurbel­lie Sci­pio (37:00) at bay to fin­ish in that or­der. The race at­tract­ed 75 run­ners.

It was an event that brought the streets of Siparia alive once again as run­ners of all ages and abil­i­ties chal­lenged them­selves. Among the stand­out par­tic­i­pants was none oth­er than Ken­rick Brown, a for­mer road race icon and one of Siparia’s most cel­e­brat­ed long-dis­tance ath­letes.

In a mo­ment that blend­ed nos­tal­gia with in­spi­ra­tion, Brown and his fam­i­ly—af­fec­tion­ate­ly dubbed “The Browns”—com­plet­ed the 5K to­geth­er, reaf­firm­ing their pas­sion for the sport and their en­dur­ing con­nec­tion to the Siparia ath­let­ic com­mu­ni­ty.

Brown, known for dom­i­nat­ing the lo­cal road rac­ing scene in his prime, was once a name feared and re­spect­ed by com­peti­tors across Trinidad and To­ba­go. His grace­ful yet pow­er­ful stride was a sym­bol of Siparia’s ath­let­ic pride, and see­ing him re­turn to the course—this time with his loved ones by his side—was both emo­tion­al and em­pow­er­ing for fans and fel­low run­ners alike.

“It wasn’t about speed to­day,” Brown re­marked with a smile af­ter the race. “It was about lega­cy, fam­i­ly, and show­ing the next gen­er­a­tion the val­ue of fit­ness and com­mu­ni­ty.”

The Browns’ par­tic­i­pa­tion added a mean­ing­ful lay­er to the event, which al­ready serves as a cor­ner­stone for com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment, youth de­vel­op­ment, and sports pro­mo­tion in the re­gion. The Siparia Soc­cer Stars FC 5K con­tin­ues to grow in pop­u­lar­i­ty each year, and with stand­out fig­ures like Brown tak­ing part, its im­pact is sure to in­spire both sea­soned ath­letes and new run­ners for years to come.

As the cheers echoed down the fi­nal stretch and medals were award­ed, one mes­sage was clear: the spir­it of road run­ning in Siparia is alive and well—thanks to leg­ends like Brown and the fam­i­lies that con­tin­ue to car­ry the torch.

Dur­ing the course of the day, res­i­dents com­pet­ed in var­i­ous events on the streets of Siparia.

Siparia be­came a bor­ough on June 20, 2023, through the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Es­tab­lish­ment of the Bor­ough of Diego Mar­tin and Bor­ough of Siparia) Act of 2021.