Cox happy with victory over Pamenos

BRIDGETOWN: Trinidad and Tobago’s Curtis Cox is celebrating his victory over the Caribbean’s leading distance runner, Pamenos Ballantyne of St Vincent and the Grenadines, in the Run Barbados half-marathon on Sunday.

Ballantyne had won the half-marathon since its inception two years ago, but Cox was rejoicing at conquering him for the second time in as many races over the last two weeks. “My colleague Errol Williams from TT was leading the race over the first mile, but I took over after about one and a half miles,” the 35-year-old Cox from Curepe told CMC Radio Sports. “I realised, however, that Pamenos was not coming with the pace. I knew that I had trained hard and prepared well. Last week, I went to Martinique and ran one hour, nine minutes and I knew that I had beaten him there. “So I decided I was going to keep the pace going and see how things would unfold. I reached 10K in 33 minutes and decided that I would see if I could run faster in the second half and that was it.”

Cox completed his triumph in one hours, nine minutes and 34 seconds, more than three and a half minutes clear of Ballantyne. “I was not feeling very good throughout the race, after I started very fast, but in the early part I went off course and when I got back on I was struggling,” Ballantyne told CMC. “I started to catch a lot of cramps, so I just decided to run according to my body and the way I was feeling. Eventually, I placed second. I am happy I was able to finish the race and placed that high.” Both runners were disappointed that the emerging Zephrinus Joseph, one of the main threats expected in the race, did not attend. Apparently, the St Lucian missed his flight out of the United States and could not make his connections on time. “I was looking to run the 10K because I knew Zephrinus was coming and I would allow him and Pamenos to fight it out in the half marathon,” Cox said. “When I heard that Zephrinus had missed the flight, I recognised that Pamenos would be on his own. Since I felt fit enough, I switched to the half and it seems I made a good choice. Only goes to show that sometimes you have to go with what your mind tells you to do.”

Ballantyne acknowledged the main reason he had chosen Run Barbados was to face Joseph. “I had a choice of attending the Run Barbados or the Reggae Marathon in Jamaica which is a bigger event, has more incentives and where I was the defending champion,” he said. “I was looking forward for Zephrinus to come to Barbados and make this race even more interesting. Who knows, I might have been a little more psyched up, but we are still young. I am 29 and he’s 28, so we have a great future and will have many clashes in the future.” Both Cox and Ballantyne are hoping to represent their respective countries at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, in September next year and will be taking part in the Trinidad and Tobago marathon next month as part of their build-up and a means of reaching either the qualifying A-standard of two hours, 12 minutes or B-standard of two hours, 14 minutes, 50 seconds.