The New Amsterdam Prisons astutely lead by its officer commanding Officer Assistant Superintendent Kevin ‘Show Stopper’ Pilgrim, upstaged defending champions the Georgetown Combination of Prison Headquarters & Georgetown Prisons to win the Guyana Prison Services (GPS) Annual Inter Prison Athletics Championship which was held last Sunday at the Scot Church Ground, Princess Elizabeth Road, New Amsterdam, Berbice.
New Amsterdam Prisons, although sporting a smaller team, executed their plans well to upset the much touted and heavily favoured defending champions to run away easy winners in the end.
At the end of the day of events New Amsterdam were way ahead with 363 points with the Prison HQ/ Georgetown Prison Combined team crawling in second with 281 points and the combined outstation locations of Mazaruni, Lusignan & Timehri Prisons trailing in a distant third ending on 159 points.
The Championship was declared open by the Director of Prisons and the battle began in earnest amongst the three teams vying for championship honours in the 30 track and field events staged during the day.
The day’s preceding saw the New Amsterdam Prison athletes dominating the track events segments and holding their own in the field events. The 100M male open race was won by Cleve Martin, who also blazed away with the 200M and 400M events. The 100M female sprints was taken by Colette John of The NA prisons, while 200M was won by Marica Murray with A Gray taking honours in the 400M both of New Amsterdam. Ronda Lewis ran away with the female 800M.
Assistant Superintendent Kevin ‘Show Stopper’ Pilgrim led from in front with a convincing victory in the 80M male senior officers’ race.
New Amsterdam blazed to victory in both 4×100 relay events. The field events athletes participated in the Shot put, Discus, Javelin and Long Jump. There were also a few novelty events with Georgetown winning both the male and female Tug O War events.
New Amsterdam also made a clean sweep of the male and female champion athlete trophies with Joel Jasper taking away the male segment with34 points and a victory in the javelin event, while placing second in the 800M, Shot Put and Discus races.
However the most outstanding male participant on show was Cleve Martin with victories in the 100M, 200Mand 400M events. The top female athlete on show was Marica Murray who had victories in the 200M, 1500M and the Shot Put and Discus events. The day’s activity began with the march past and salute which was taken by the Director of Prisons, Dale Erskine, DSM.
The respective teams were commanded by Cadet Officer A. Benjamin heading the combined outstation locations, Prison HQ/ Georgetown by ASP O. Cox and New Amsterdam by Cadet Officer T. Hemerding. In the end combine outstation locations was adjudged the best team during the March Pass.
The athletes will continue training as they prepare to participate in the upcoming Joint service athletics champion ship.
(Samuel Whyte