Antigua-Barbuda show dominance at OECS Cycling Championship

Wet weather proved little obstacle to riders from Antigua and Barbuda, with the twin-island nation taking four of the top five spots in the OECS Cycling Championships yesterday.

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States competition, held in Dominica, was was by Jyme Bridges.

The former national champion from Antigua and Barbuda finished with a time of 3 hours and 29:30 seconds, just ahead of St Lucia’s Andrew Norbet who finished on 3:00:29.37.

Norbert managed to chase Bridges for almost all of the 90-mile course, which stretches from Pottersville Savannah to the Cabrits and back again.

The St Lucian is followed by others from Antigua and Barbuda, including veteran Marvin Spencer, who finished just over four minutes later.

Jeffery Kelsick and Emmanuel Gayral were place fourth and fifth. Kelsick managed to finish fourth despite a fall earlier in the race.

Mervyn Gore, president of the Antigua and Barbuda Cycling Association, praised the athletes for the way they performed given the conditions.

“Everybody performed exceptionally well because at some point we were behind because it was a very mountainous [course]," he said to the Antigua Observer.

We just crawled our way back and just picking off cyclists one at a time and that’s why we were able to sustain the positions of first, third, fourth and fifth."

“We were always confident that we would have done well but during the race things changed in terms of the rain and what we had planned didn’t pan out then everybody just had to adapt and find new strategies and new ways in reference to how we were going to tackle the race.”

WIC News understands that cyclist Robert Marsh sustained a number of injuries after a police motorcycle hit him head-on.

Tyron Thomas of Grenada came closest to stealing another top-five place from Antigua-Barbuda riders, finishing sixth, with riders from Anguilla and St Vincent also in the top 10.

Dominica’s Bram Sanderson did the best of all the riders competing on home soil, finishing the race in 16th place