Romany, Bailey win CIBC 5K titles

NICHOLAS Romany won the CIBC FirstCaribbean Walk for the Cure 5K in a personal best time at the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain on Saturday. The 5K event started and ended outside of TGIF.

Romany got emotional after the victory as it was the first time he finished a 5K event in less than 15 minutes.

His time was not official up to press time on Saturday, but Romany timed himself and registered a time of 14 minutes and 46 seconds (14:46).

Romany said, “I was working on this for awhile now with my coach Jason Parris. He told me the splits I would have to run to run the 14 minutes today (Saturday) and I just execute everything he told me to do. I feel very happy because I actually cried as I passed the finish line. Tears came to my eye when I saw 14 (minutes) on the clock.”

Romany’s previous personal best was 15:12, which he achieved in 2019 at the Guardian Group SHINE 5K event.

The dedication to training paid off according to Romany.

“I am a very consistent athlete. Straight from work every day Monday to Saturday I come straight from work and come to the savannah to train. Parris is very good in what he is doing, he researches everything. He tells you the workouts, what it for. He explains everything to you.”

Romany is hoping to achieve a personal best in the 10K distance this year.

TT CARIFTA athlete Tafari Waldron was second and Donnel Francis was third.

In the women’s category, TT CARIFTA athlete Aniqah Bailey was first, Shardie Mahabir was second and Chantel LeMaitre finished third.

The event was held in an effort to raise prostate cancer awareness.

CIBC will host another event to raise cancer awareness when a Fun Ride is held on October 30.

Participants will ride from the CIBC Maraval branch to the Chaguanas branch and back.