MoBay heat defiant

WESTERN BUREAU:

Evans Tetteh and Dandie Williams conquered the field but not the Montego Bay heat last Sunday, taking the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, at the MBJ Airports Limited 5K Run/Walk at Sangster International Airport.

Both arrived seeking victory and faster times, but the heat and humidity had other ideas on a morning when even men’s runner-up Kemar Leslie blamed the conditions for slowing him down.

Tetteh, the Ghanaian-born Jamaica College student-athlete representing Pacers Running Club, won in an official 16 minutes 19 seconds, finishing ahead of Rainforest Caribbean’s Leslie, who clocked 16:32. Grapey Grapey’s Odane Davidson was close behind in third with 16:36.

Tetteh, who has lived in Jamaica for the past three years, had been targeting a time in the region of 15:55 but said the conditions forced him to adjust his strategy.

“In the middle of the race, the heat was disturbing, so I just relaxed myself,” he said.

The victory maintained Tetteh’s perfect record at the MBJ event. On his first appearance, he contested and won the 10K. With only the 5K being staged this year, he returned over the shorter distance and again emerged champion.

And he made no secret of his intentions.

Asked whether he had come to win, Tetteh responded confidently: “Yes, of course.”

Leslie, a familiar face at the MBJ race, conceded that Tetteh had been the better man on the day.

“My competitor was good. I would say that,” he said.

But the Rainforest Caribbean runner, who has consistently placed among the top finishers in road races, also believed the conditions prevented him from producing the time he wanted.

“It’s a bit hot. The humidity is not what I expected,” Leslie said.

He noted that, just a week earlier, he had recorded a faster time on a hilly course, making Sunday’s result on MBJ’s relatively flat route particularly frustrating.

“I should have got a better time, but I think it’s the heat,” he said.

Leslie nevertheless remains a fan of racing in the western city.

“I love MoBay routes. It’s much flatter than Kingston,” he said.

“We just need to bring the cool air down here and I think we’ll have a much faster race.”

Williams could certainly relate.

The Pacers Running Club athlete led the women home, with Anieta Gutzmore taking second in 21:44 and Papine High School’s Gizelle James finishing third.

Williams had clocked 20:47 in a 5K just a week earlier and arrived at Sangster International Airport hoping to improve on that performance.

It was not to be.

“I wanted to shave that down, but the heat was just too much for me, and so I didn’t achieve that,” she said. “But it was a good race.”

A regular 10K competitor at MBJ in previous years, Williams said racing the 5K allowed her to avoid some of the congestion she had experienced in the longer event.

“This year, it was better in the sense that I didn’t have the crowd,” she said, noting that being among the lead pack gave her a clearer run.

Williams believes an earlier start could make a difference.

“MoBay is really hot. I mean, we complain in Kingston but I don’t sweat this much in Kingston. So I know it’s really hot down here,” she said.

SATISFIED WITH VICTORY

Despite missing her target time, Williams was satisfied with another victory in what has already been a successful year.

She estimated that she has competed in about 12 races, winning most of them and finishing second only twice.

More importantly, she left Sunday’s race healthy.

“I’m feeling good. I have no injury, and so that’s always the goal whenever I do a 5K or a 10K,” Williams said.

Having already completed a half marathon, she is now training for her first marathon.

While the runners battled the conditions, the fact that they were able to race at all represented another kind of victory for the organisers.

Sharon Hislop, manager of commercial business development and marketing at MBJ Airports Limited and a director of the MBJ Airports Foundation Limited, revealed that there had been serious concerns about staging the event this year because of the impact of Hurricane Melissa on corporate Jamaica, particularly in the west.

With businesses still rebuilding, organisers questioned whether it would be appropriate to seek sponsorship.

“We thought it was a little bit insensitive to be approaching them for sponsorship in such a time,” Hislop said.

But then the calls started coming, not from MBJ to sponsors, but from sponsors to MBJ.

“The change of mind came about when the sponsors started reaching out to me. Not one, not two, not three. I had about six sponsors reaching out,” she recalled.

That prompted Hislop to reopen discussions with former sponsors, while new companies also joined the effort.

The result was 112 sponsors this year, up from 108 last year, while approximately 3,300 people registered for last Sunday’s 5K.

For Hislop, the response was further evidence of the resilience she has witnessed since Melissa.

“No matter what disaster or what we are going through ... we are going to support a good cause,” she said.

At the heart of that cause are students with the academic ability to pursue their education but without the financial resources to do so.

“Corporate Jamaica sees that there’s a real need to support those students, brilliant students who just do not have the financial means to continue their education,” Hislop said.

“And so this is why the event keeps growing, because there’s a great need, and corporate Jamaica sees that and supports it for a better Jamaica for all of us.”

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com