Williams wins MoBay City Run for second time

Ronique Williams ran a great race to win the Male 10K Run in the 2015 MoBay City Run in a fast 36 minutes and 17 seconds to retain the title he won at last year's inaugural staging.

Arietha Martin took the women's race in a smart 47 minutes and 10 seconds to complete a successful staging as promised by the organisers.

Williams was followed across the line by veteran road racer Andrew Gutzmore, 37:08 and Kenroy Johnson, 42:10.

The Male 5K Run was won by Mario Harrison of Riu Hotel in a time of 19:44.09 seconds, with second place going to Dilon Maxwell, 20:09. Ojae Duhaney crossed the finish line in third place in a time of 20:26. Emily Smith (unattached) won the women's race in 23 minutes, 04 seconds.

The event drew well over 2,000 participants, including a staggering 521-member team from Hotel Riu, to give them the corporate title for a second straight year.

Last year they pulled a little over 250.

happy for win

Williams paced himself well throughout the race to ease to victory, some distance ahead of Gutzmore (Courts Optical). After the race, he told The Gleaner how pleased he was to deliver a second consecutive title.

"Last year was quite easy; this year, however, was really tough because most of the top road runners in the country came out, but I just dug deep and run as best I knew how, and here is the result," said Williams.

"The course in itself was great. I love the course but was under a little pressure from the veterans, but I wanted to win badly and it feels great to be associated with a great road race for charity," he added.

Williams won for himself three months' free Internet service from Flow, a JetBlue travel certificate, $10,000 and a trophy.

Seventy-five-year-old Gerline Nelson won the title - oldest finisher. Nelson has been participating in road races for many years, winning medals and trophies and promises she will be back next year to lend support for the worthy cause.

If last year was a success, this year, according to Janet Silvera, chairperson of the organising committee, was even better.

She said apart from some hiccups in certain areas, the overall product delivered big time.

"It was a resounding success in relation to what we are trying to accomplish. There still remain some challenges in logistics, but overall it was a fantastic event, one that in my estimation was much better than last year's," she said.

Four tertiary education facilities will benefit directly from proceeds from the MoBay City Run - the University of the West Indies and University of Technology (western campuses), Sam Sharpe Teachers' College, and Montego Bay Community College.