WAL­TER AL­IBEY

Or­gan­is­ers of ath­let­ic events in T&T such as the UWI Spec In­ter­na­tion­al Half Marathon and the T&T In­ter­na­tion­al Marathon are be­ing heav­i­ly be­ing crit­i­cised by lo­cals and oth­er Caribbean ath­letes for the stan­dard of in­ter­na­tion­al run­ners be­ing in­vit­ed for these events.

How­ev­er Di­ane Hen­der­son, a chief or­gan­is­er of the T&T In­ter­na­tion­al Marathon is in­stead call­ing on lo­cal and re­gion­al run­ners to em­brace ef­forts be­ing made to im­prove their times at races and do their part. Yes­ter­day Guyana's Kevin John­son and Li­onel Dan­drade who are res­i­dent run­ners here in T&T have ex­pressed the view that con­sid­er­a­tion must be made for the cal­iber of in­ter­na­tion­al run­ners who are in­vit­ed here for ma­jor road race events, to be dropped.

They feel the stan­dard of in­ter­na­tion­al run­ners be­ing in­vit­ed is pre­vent­ing lo­cal run­ners from cap­i­tal­is­ing on the prizes avail­able. In fact John­son whose best fin­ish at the UWI half marathon was sixth in 2011, said he con­sid­ers it a ma­jor dis­re­spect to lo­cal run­ners.

"If they want to bring in com­pe­ti­tion for the lo­cal run­ners then or­gan­is­ers need to look for run­ners whose times are be­tween one hour and 14 min­utes to one hour and 15 min­utes. In­stead they have been bring­ing in ath­letes clock­ing times like one hour and two min­utes etc which has been more de­mor­al­is­ing for the T&T run­ners" John­son said.

For many years in­ter­na­tion­al run­ners have dom­i­nat­ed events such as the then Cli­co In­ter­na­tion­al Marathon to the T&T in­ter­na­tion­al marathon to the UWI Spec Half marathon to all oth­er small events such as the But­ler Clas­sic, Ven­tures Cred­it Union 5k, Bankers In­sur­ance 20k to the Air Bon Son­ics 5k among many oth­er events.

For these events run­ners such as Kenyan Kennedy Rotich and Philip La­gat, Brazil's Chavez Da Sil­va, Mary Akor (Nige­ria), Car­o­line Kip­too (Kenya), Cruz Nona­ta Da Sil­va (Brazil) and Linei­ta Madeus Ro­jas (Colom­bia) have not on­ly made their mark on lo­cal soil but have won some of the main cash prizes avail­able.

John­son, who now ad­mits that he does not re­al­ly look for­ward to the UWI Spec In­ter­na­tion­al Half Marathon or the T&T Marathon told Guardian yes­ter­day "Once the lo­cal run­ners see a for­eign run­ner who clocks 1:02 min­utes then they tell them­selves they have to try and set­tle for the best po­si­tion af­ter them. We have been see­ing it for years now" John­son said.

He added "In fact I feel sor­ry for the T&T run­ners be­cause the prizes avail­able be­come out of their reach with the class of the in­ter­na­tion­al run­ners that have been in­vit­ed. And to make my point, at the Bankers In­sur­ance event that was held re­cent­ly, I fin­ished sixth be­hind the in­ter­na­tion­al run­ners and all the oth­er lo­cal run­ners fin­ished af­ter me, so I felt bad for them" John­son ex­plained.

His coun­try man Dan­drade said it is dif­fi­cult to win the UWI half marathon or the T&T In­ter­na­tion­al marathon or any oth­er race with the type of in­ter­na­tion­al run­ners they are bring here. Mean­while John­son and Dan­drade al­so took a swipe at the prize struc­ture for the UWI half marathon and called on or­gan­is­ers to in­crease the prize monies if the event is to sur­vive. The out­spo­ken John­son said the prize monies have been the same from since in­cep­tion and peo­ple who par­tic­i­pate in road race event for a liv­ing could be turned off by that.

John­son said "the cost of liv­ing has been go­ing up each year but the prizes for the uwi half marathon has re­mained the same.

This is the rea­son why I do not fo­cus on that race be­cause I would usu­al­ly go abroad which cash in­cen­tives are more at­trac­tive but I think or­gan­is­ers of the uwi event should con­sid­er in­creas­ing their prizes for all cat­e­gories."