Weekend Sports: Sprints, Goals, and Slam Dunks

Good evening, I am Paul Lopez with this week’s installment of Sports Monday. Let’s jump right into the highlights of this weekend in Sports with the Twenty-Fifth BEL Junior Cross Country Cycling Classic. A field of thirty junior male riders took off from the Succotz Ferry out west on Sunday morning enroute to Belize City. The group included five foreigners, two Mexicans, two Guatemalans and one rider from the Cayman Island.

 

Heading towards Blackman Eddy it was all G Flow’s Keith Enwright Junior and Team Misfits’ Stephan Pelayo out front leading the race. They were eventually caught G Flow’s Amaad Cherington launched an attack around mile thirty-five and rode solo for more than a dozen miles with a significant three-minute time gap. A group of four riders caught Cherington twelve miles before the finish line. And, it was these five riders, three from G Flow, Griga Cycling’s Jamaal Tablada and Cayman Island’s Ryan Thompson, that rode into Belize City together.

 

On the final stretch inside Belize City, Cherington led the pace. Towards the finish line, it’s an all-out sprint. 00:26 Enwright picks up speed from behind, head down, and then celebrates as he crossed the finish line in first place, followed by Thompson and Tablada to round off the top three.

 

Keith Enrwight Jr., Male Champion, Junior Cross Country

“Coming on to the finish, I had no faith in myself. I had the faith in my two teammates, Ahmaad. I am not a sprinter. I knew my teammate was on my wheel, so I said I would try to wheel it out, so he could come around fast and get the win. We did end up to doing that. But I saw him start to lock up his legs. I saw the guy from Cayman coming and I said I could not let him win. So I continued my sprint and end up passing everybody. To be honest I just feel shocked. I don’t understand how I do that just now.”

 

The Junior Female Cross Country was also held on Sunday. The group rode from Roaring Creek to Belize City. Seventeen-year-old Irani Baki dominated the race and told us that she was hoping for a greater challenge.

 

Irani Baki, Female Champion, Junior Cross Country,

“From far I was running by myself for this entire race and I kind of wanted it to be a batter race. Last year I came in solo so I wanted to come in solo, so I wanted to come in solo again this year and I wanted to win it back-to-back. So, I went for the win and won again and did a good time.”

 

Baki also competed in the Women’s Cross Country two weeks ago. She is now preparing to travel for training in Paris.

 

And from Cycling we bring you some football action from two separate leagues, the Belize District First Division and the Future Football League. In the First Division tournament, we bring you highlights from the match between Tutbay Football Club and Ceasar Ridge Football Club. Folks this one saw an early goal by Tutbay’s Kevaughn Tablada. Under a minute, there is some confusion in front of the goal and Tablada was able to capitalize. 11:08 Tutbay’s second goal came off this corner kick ten minutes later. Beautiful header into the net by Leon Jones. And, with plenty of play time left, Tutbay prevented their opponents from scoring throughout the rest of the match. The game ended with two goals to one. In the Little League, Future FC defeated Ladyville two goals to one. Separate Future FC and Ladyville teams faced off in the second match and Future FC once again dominated, this time four goals to zero.

 

And finally, for tonight, it was not another weekend packed with National Elite Basketball League action. On Friday night, the Belize City Defenders took on the Dangriga Dream Ballers inside the Civic Center. The match up was even throughout the entire first half. But the Defenders broke way in the third quarter and never looked back. The Ballers had no response. The Defenders went on to win the match with ninety points to their opponents, fifty points. Saturday night featured a double header. The San Pedro Tiger Sharks hosted the Orange Walk Running Rebels in Belize City. The results were close with this one. Seventy-nine for the Orange Walk Running Rebels and eighty-one for the Tiger Sharks, adding another victory to their 2026 stats. And then in San Ignacio, the Cayo Western Ballaz hosted the Corozal Spartans. The Western Ballaz one match with ninety-eight points, while the Spartans closed with eighty-two points.

 

Well folks, that is all we have for you in tonight’s coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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