NEVIS CYCLE & TRIATHLON CLUB

Easter Sunday was celebrated in fine style by the Nevis Cycle & Triathlon Club as they embarked upon a new venture, a round the island run, a distance of almost 20 miles. Twenty Two athletes gathered at 6.00am outside the Oualie Beach Hotel for this inaugural event that was sponsored by Nevis Spring Water, Wheel World Cycle Shop and Deli by Wendy.
The athletes attending were a mixture of people who had come to race and those who just wanted to challenge themselves, from the outset it was clear who the standouts would be as they started at a fast pace, and apart from a couple everyone was attempting this distance for the first time. Otis Stevens (St kitts) took an early lead followed closely by Reggie, James, Miranda and visiting runner Alex Kahan (USA) with everyone else slotting in somewhere depending on their speed.
The field were quickly strung out around the north end of the island as the hills, especially ‘Zion Hill’, started to take their toll on the athletes legs, making the job of the water volunteers that much more difficult, but spirits remained high as the sun started to rise and warm the athletes bodies.
It must have been quite a surprise for the Sunday church goers to see the athletes, and they expressed their alarm that people were actually running around the whole island.
The leading runners were setting a very good pace, with local favorites Reggie and James giving a good account of themselves, but it was Otis Stevens who looked the more relaxed as they approached the latter stages of the race, along with visiting runner Alex kahan.
As it came down to the wire Otis extended his lead, but was threatened in the last instance by a late surge by Alex, however, Otis finished very strongly in 1st place in a time of 2:21:00, followed by Alex Kahan 2:21:58 and in third Reggie Douglas with a great time of 2:25:00.
For the women it was a foregone conclusion as Nicky Aurangabadkar (St kitts) lead for the last two thirds of the race to finish in a time of 2:46:28, followed by Nevis top female triathlete Miranda Grandison in 3:14:56 whilst in third place came Sarah Petre-Mears showing great staying power.
This was a tryout event for the Nevis Cycle & triathlon Club, which proved very successful, the intention will be to encourage more relay team participation, we wish to thank the volunteers who Gave up their free time to help out and keep everyone hydrated and fed, the next home event for the club will be the ‘King Of The Road’ road cycle race June 7th, see you there.

The Nevis Cycle & Triathlon Club has had the pleasure of the involvement of some of the medical students based here at the MUA facility on Nevis, particular standouts are the tri family Moreno, Jaime, Danielle and son Julian, who have thrown their collective hats in the ring with us, and joined in with our fun and games wholeheartedly, what follows is their diary of there time on Nevis)