Long Marathon, Hoops and Long Balls This Weekend In Sports

Good evening, Belizean ballers and supporters at home and abroad. This week runners hit the streets of Belize City, NEBL hits the districts for week four and the interoffice softball tournament heats up in Sandhill. I’m Shane Williams with another exciting edition of Sports Monday.

 

More than a hundred runners, joggers and fast walkers hit the streets of Belize City early Saturday morning for the annual Run for the Reef held as part of activities marking Reef Week. First to take off from the starting line were the competitive runners for an eight-mile road race along Marine Parade, Princess Margaret Drive, past the Marion Jones Sporting Complex, through West Landivar and out toward the Phillip Goldson Highway before looping back to the finish line.

 

In the men’s category, Oliver Sinclair from Canada captured first place by outsprinting Belmopan’s Christopher Broaster, both crossing the line in fifty-two minutes and fifty-three seconds. While Omar Pulido of San Ignacio rounded out the podium in fifty-three minutes and forty-three seconds.

On the women’s side, Sarteneja’s Chrystal Thomas led the field with a time of one hour and three minutes. BDF’s Alberta Coh finished six minutes later to secure second place, while San Ignacio’s Jane Champion finished in one hour and seventeen minutes to take the third-place medal.

 

The event also featured a two-mile run and walk challenge, giving recreational runners and families a chance to take part in the Reef Week celebration and show support for reef conservation efforts with participants leaving from Memorial Park to the Princess Hotel and back. Proceeds from the event support Reef Week activities and raise awareness about protecting the Belize Barrier Reef.

 

In the National Elite Basketball League, three games were played over the weekend with tight contests across the country. On Friday night, the Orange Walk Running Rebels edged the Belmopan Trojans in a high-scoring matchup, one-hundred and three to one hundred.  For Orange Walk, Kenneth Perkins Junior led the offense with twenty-eight points. The Trojans were paced by Bryan Hudson who poured in twenty-six points.

 

On Saturday night, the Cayo Western Ballaz took on the EZ Investments Griga Dream Ballers, with the Ballaz coming away with the win eighty-six to seventy-four. Zoren Smith led Cayo with twenty-four points. Kareem “Maka” Flowers finished with twenty-two points for the Dream Ballers.

 

And in the weekend’s final matchup, the San Pedro Tiger Sharks defeated the Corozal Spartans, eighty-seven to seventy-seven. Devin Moody led the Tiger Sharks with twenty-five points, while Corozal was led by Alex Carcamo with twenty-three points. Week five kicks off at the Belize Civic Center this Friday as the new look Belize City Defenders host the Corozal Spartans.

 

From the court we head to the diamond for some softball action as the Sandhill field hosted nine games this weekend. In the BEL Power Sockets vs the Maritime Enforcers game, the route started from early with BEL’s shortstop leading off the game with this no doubt homerun.  The power sockets continued to pour on the scoring on Enforcers pitcher Justin Gillett, while the defense played solid behind Denise Gillett to win the game by mercy rule after five innings with a score of ten to one.

 

In other games this weekend, top seed HRCU/BCC Eagles defeated The Police/Tax Enforcers by a score of fourteen to nine. The winning pitcher was Kaya Cattouse, and the losing pitcher was Nirza Ramirez. Bowen and Bowen Brewers defeated Belize Bank Bulldogs in the most hotly contested match up of the weekend, eight to seven. The winning pitcher was Sean Reneau, and the losing pitcher was Evita Marin. And in an open Coed league game, Biscayne Tropical Breeze defeated Tiga Town Red Necks fifteen to eight. The winning pitcher was Janet Cal, and the losing pitcher was Jada Moralez.

 

And that does it for this week’s sporting highlights. Thanks for joining us. I’m Shane Williams reminding you that friendly competition unites and balling is life so as always, Keep Ballin Belize!

 

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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