Costelloe wins Rainbow Warriors mountain bike event

NATIONAL triathlon champion Jason Costelloe dominated the open category at the Rainbow Warriors Triathlon Club’s 16th edition of the River Raid Mountain Bike, Trail Run and Doggy Run.

The event was held at Samaan Park in Chaguaramas last weekend.

Race organiser Jason Gooding said he was “very pleased with the way the day went.”

A total of 30 youngsters in the youth mountain-bike long-course category set off at 7 am, with the Tobagonian Aaron Wheeler of TBMT taking the narrow win in a time of 11 minutes and 15 seconds (11:15). He was closely followed by Liam D’Abadie in 11:16, and finishing third was Jael Jessop in 12:07.

The girls' winner was Tamara Phillip in 13:09, Leah De Freitas of Rainbow Warriors was second in 15:14 and Melina Lopez of Rigtech Sonics ended third with a time of 17:43.

The mountain bike open and sport categories were next. This is where Costelloe, 37, crept away lap after lap from Justin Boynes to win the open 25K category in a time of 1:11:59. Boynes, of PSL Cycling, maintained his lap times to finish second in 1:13:43.

In third place was Nikolai Ho, in a time of 1:15:23, who, for the majority of the five-lap race was neck-and-neck with 51-year-old Tobagonian Eamon Healy-Sing, who eventually finished fourth in 1:15:33. Richard Conybear capped off the top five men in this category in 1:20:35.

Maria Gooding, sister of race organiser Jason, was the only woman to take the start line in the open category. Her finishing time was 1:27:43.

In the mountain bike sport 15K category, Greg Downes and James Harris took it to the wire with their finish line sprint. Downes eventually pulled away, taking first place in 46:00, with Harris trailing by only four seconds (46:04), and James Amow claiming third spot in 46:56.

In the women’s mountain bike sport category, Annette Madsen showed her power by grabbing top honours in 56:42, with Simone Tardieu (1:00:17) and Grit Blackman (1:04:33) finishing second and third respectively.

In the youth mountain bike short course for children nine and under, Jacob Alleyne, Cruz Gomes and Julian De Freitas, all of Giants Multisport, took the top three boys' spots.

In the girls', following in her mother’s footsteps, Skyla Lee Loo, daughter of open women’s winner Maria, took first place, ahead of Evynleigh Gomes and Maia Peters.

TT Road Runners long-distance veteran Guswil George took an easy win in the 4.5K trail run in 18:04. Try as he might, Raheem Modeste had to settle for second place in 18:40. Javan Lynch hot on his heels, only five seconds behind, finished third overall in 18:45.

In the overall women’s category, Shardie Mahabir, a woman who seems to be the winner in every race she runs, once again proved she was a champion. She won the trail run in 21:40, easily ahead of Tobagonians Dana Llanos (26:33) and Blackman (26:37), who sprinted to the finish in second and third respectively.

The final and newest event of the River Raid was the Doggy Run, in which participants can run with their dogs. In the men’s category, Amir Baksh copped first place with his Husky in a time of 24:37. In second and third were Allan Garib (25:19) and Keenan Assing.

In the women’s category, Darnise Ross won with her Husky/Boxer mix in a time of 26:47. Taking second was Tonya Sun Kow in 28:54 and Kavelle Mohammed finished in 37:58, which placed her third.

The next Rainbow Warriors event is the Rainbow Cup Triathlon and 5K, which will be held in Tobago on June 10. More information on that event can be found at www.rainbowcuptobago.com