Young stars team with distance boss to take road relay title

L-R: Victor Magalhaes, Juan Pablo Valerio, Levi Superville, Sherlock Brooks, Patrick Harfield. (Missing: Abraham Whittaker)

A group of young runners, three of them who are expected to represent the Cayman Islands at the CARIFTA Games in Easter, teamed with the most dominant distance runner on the local circuit to blitz the competition at the 45th Annual Cross Island Relay hosted by Hash House Harriers on 3 February 2019.

In all, 89 teams completed the six-leg race but it was the 345 Athletic Club’s Mdr’s A-Team of Victor Magalhaes, Abraham Whittaker, Sherlock Brooks, Levi Superville, Juan Pablo Valerio, and Patrick Harfield who were quickest over the 24 miles from East End to Smith Barcadere in 2 hours, 20 minutes and 46.65 seconds, more than five minutes ahead of their nearest competitors.

“It was kind of close [when I started my leg],” said Brooks, who grabbed the baton after runs by Magalhaes and Whittaker.

“When Abraham brought me the baton, I think the guy was like two minutes behind me and then I set off and tried to keep a good six-mile pace and as I went on and looked back, I saw the guy was pretty far back – around four minutes behind me. So, I said I was just going to keep consistent on my pace and try not to burn myself out until I reach the third mile, then I started to pick it up a bit,” he added.

Superville then built on the comfortable lead. “Halfway through, I was getting tired but I just pushed it and just said ‘go’,” he told CaymanSportsBuzz.com at the finish.

“It was more or less [over],” said Valerio, who was next to grab the baton for the eventual winners, about the start of his leg. “We had it in the bag, so there was not much to worry about. I just held the pace,” he said. “Overall, it was a good run.”

Then it was up to Patrick Harfield, who’s won pretty much every road event he’s entered in recent months, to take it on the final leg.

Harfield eased to the finish.

“The boys set me up with a really nice lead and I just had to bring it home,” said the winner of the half-marathon distance at the 2018 Intertrust Cayman Islands Marathon in December. “Thankfully there was no one in sight, so I did not have to go crazy with it. They did well and I was happy to bring it home for them.”

The second team to finish was South Sound AC (mixed) in 2:26:25.74, easily ahead of Wednesday Night Running Club’s ‘Jogfathers’ (all male) with a time of 2:35:27.17.

Walkers Running was next across the line (2:42:56.47) as the first corporate team. 345AC Mdr Gurls was the first all-female team in eight overall (2:53:48.30).

See full results here.

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