National triathlon champ cops Coast 2 Coast event

His closest competitor was Stephen Cadiz, 25, who completed the grueling event in 13 hours and 24 minutes. Third was Glen Whiby in 14:01.

Among the women diminutive Nina Chaves, national duathlon champion, proved her mettle to beat former champion Diane Henderson in 14 hours and 26 minutes. Henderson’s time was 15:01.

Third was former junior triathlon champion Lara Littlepage in 15:16.

The first relay team to finish in 12:06 included Keron Kong, Bruce Hay and Erle Rahaman. The second team of Ivan Charles, Glen Wilkes and Keith Nieves finished in 12:36. The Coast2Coast which started at Salybia Beach and ended in front of Movietowne, and sponsored mainly by Lucozade Sport, Rotoplastics and Movietowne, was completed over two days, Saturday and Sunday, starting at 6 pm and 5 pm respectively.

Gooding, who is partly-sponsored by Guardian Life and BWIA, decided to enter the event just two weeks ago. But since returning home from Canada, where lack of adequate funding has put an end to his international triathlon dreams, he has competed in the Tour of Tobago and raced in Barbados with his local club Rafmon Metalfab.

The terrible condition of the stretch of road from the Silver Bridge in Blanchisseuse caused Gooding to suffer two flats in the first half an hour into the race.