Romany, Shukla rule the road at Venture 5K event

NICHOLAS Romany and Samantha Shukla continued to show their quality on the local long-distance circuit, winning twice in the space of two weekends when they captured the Venture Credit Union Cooperative Society 5K titles on Sunday.

Romany won the overall and men's title in 15 minutes and seven seconds (15:07) in the race, which started and ended at the Venture Credit Union branch in Couva. It was Romany's second win in as many weekends, as he took first place in the Chinatown 7K event on September 10, which started and ended at Charlotte Street in Port of Spain.

Finishing second on Sunday was Kenyan Alex Ekesa in 15:11, who has been a regular competitor in Trinidad for years. TT junior athlete Tafari Waldron, who trains alongside Romany around the Queen's Park Savannah, finished third in 15:35. Rounding off the top five were Donnell Francis in 16:09 and Collin Pereira in 16:14.

Samantha Shukla, who won the women's title at the Chinatown 7K event, snatched the women's crown in 19:34 to end 27th overall. Chennai Moore, who is only ten, continued to turn heads in local races, coming second (58th overall) among the women in 21:16, and April Francis grabbed third spot in 21:57 (63rd overall).

Some of the other notable competitors in the men's category were veterans Elvis Turner (seventh in 17:23), Richard Jones (15th in 17:57) and Curtis Cox (17th in 18:23).

In the women's division, experienced runners Shardie Mahabir (77th overall/fourth in women's category) ended in 22:31 and Christine Regis (84th/seventh) stopped the clock in 22:53.

Almost 900 participants competed in the race, which began at 6.30 am.