Vishok Persaud is overall Dakota 100 winner

- Team Wreckers retain 160cc class win

VISHOK PERSAUD overcame stiff competition from defending champion, Adrian Fernandes of Team Wreckers, to win the season opening Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC) Dakota 100 endurance race.

Driving his Lotus Exige, the group three and four driver completed the 100lap mark in two hours forty minutes and 29 seconds with Fernandes and team falling two laps short of the mark.

It was an early battle between Persaud and the BM Soat Honda Integra of Rameez Mohamed but in a race for the swift, the latter fell out somewhere around the 61 lap mark with Persaud persevering the gruelling drive alone.

By virtue of being the first to complete the 100 laps, Persaud, who also entered the unlimited class, finished six laps ahead of the nearest competitor in his group, Kamal Seebarran and the Toyota Yaris GR with the team of Syad Hassan finishing third in that class after completing 92 laps.

Persaud also produced the fastest endurance lap around the new layout, setting the benchmark at 1:25.451.

In the 1601cc – 2000cc class, Romario Dindial with 88 laps won that class ahead of Richard Hamid 86 laps and Romario Singh (58 laps).

Fernandes picked up the 1501cc-1600cc class with a

GBA named Association of the year at...

For the first time the Sport Ministry provided cash prizes for all of the winners in the various categories except the Corporate sponsors, who received Plaques only.

Squash dominated the Awards, since apart from Nicolette’s achievement, Shomari Wilshere won the Junior Sportsman award; Kirsten Gomes was runner-up for the Junior Sportswoman while Guyana’s Junior Squash team which won their 13 Junior CASA title in Guyana in July, copped the Sports team-of-the-year award.

Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who made 439 runs at an average of 73.9 to finish second on run aggregate, behind Kraigg Braithwaite, in the 2022 Regional first-class tournament before scoring 160 runs at an average of 40 in the two Tests in Australia last year, was the runner-up to Amsterdam.

Bodybuilder Rosanna Fung was the runner-up to Nicolette for the Sports Woman-of-the-year.

Footballer Omari Glasgow was runner-up to Wilshire for the Junior Sportsman-of-the-year.

The sport person with disabilities-of-the-year went to Walter Grant-Stuart, who participated in cycling in the 2022 Paralympics Games while there were no nominees for Sports Woman in this category.

The Male Coach-ofthe-year went to table tennis coach, Idi Lewis, who coached Chelsea Edghill in the Olympics while Female Coach-of-the-year went to former Berbice, Guyana and West Indies female fast bowling all-rounder and level 3 Coach, 37-year-old Tremaine Smartt.

The Guyana Boxing Association got Association-of-the-year Award after hosting eighteen junior and schoolboy’s tournaments and one International competition – the Winfield Braithwaite youth and Junior Championships.

The Terrence Ali National Open Championship, won by defending Champions GDF, culminated boxing for 2022. The overseas championships were the AMBC Continental Championships, the Commonwealth Games, South American Games and strong showing from GMR&SC Vice President Mohamed Shiraz Roshandin who encountered brakes problem through the last half hour. He completed 93 laps when the clock stopped. Shan Seejattan finished third in that class with 89 laps.

Altabh Khan took the 0-1500cc class with 86 laps ahead of Narendra Mangar (83 laps) and Alex Siebs (79 laps).

(From back page)

AMBC Continental youth Championships.

The Male Sports Officialof-the-Year went to Ryan Sampson from Rifle Shooting while the Female Sports Official-of-the-Year was won by Ann Gordon.

The Sports Journalistsof-the-Year were Avinash Ramzan (Non-Print), Duncan Saul (Print) and Akeem Greene (Broadcast) as Newsroom took two of the three categories.

The Corporate Sponsor Awards went to Ansa McAl (Large), Mohammed’s Enterprise (Medium) and MVP Sports (Small).

Former Badminton coach and President of the GBA, from 2006 until his passing, the late Gokarn Ramdhani was awarded for his long ser-