Holmwood’s Rose, Graham of Rainforest top Burger King 5K

HOLMWOOD TECHNICAL’S Cindy Rose and Dwayne Graham, representing Rainforest Caribbean, were the top female and male finishers respectively at yesterday’s Burger King 5K and Relay in Portmore, St Catherine.

“I am very pleased that I came out with the win today as I have been training very hard, and this win has motivated me going into the 2024 track and field season,” Rose said after her win.

The 38-year-old Graham was too good for his younger competitors as he won the overall race in 15:54. Evans Tetteh of Ghana, representing Jamaica College (JC), was second in 16:06 with another veteran, Kemar Leslie of Rainforest Caribbean, finishing third in 16:20.

Graham said he was very confident before the race.

“I knew that I was going up against some younger athletes, but I have been training very hard, especially doing hill training and knew I was in good shape,” said the Highgate, St Mary-based runner who added that lack of financial support has prevented him from competing regularly.

Holmwood’s girls and JC dominated team prizes at the meet.

The Dwayne Johnson-coached JC team won the Lois Sherwood 5K Award for the team with the best finish. Their top finishers here were led by Tetteh, who was second male overall; Nellie Ambritton 16.38; Rasheed Pryce, 17.15; Jermaine Fender, 17.33; and Keithan Monera 17.51.

JC also collected a cash prize of $400,000 after winning the BK Big finish where they had the highest number of entrants, 56, that completed the 5K Run/Walk. Alphansus Davis High finished second and collected $150,000. They had 34 finishers.

JC were, however, dethroned in the 4x1500m. After a very close opening leg both Kingston College (KC) and JC handed over the baton simultaneously. However, KC’s new Class Two athlete, Chris Wanjiku from Kenya, stamped his class on the second leg, giving his team a 30-metre lead.

From there on it was smooth sailing for Jaquan Coke and anchor leg runner Brian Kiprop (another Kenyan) as they won easily in the end, with JC second and STETHS third.

The Dave Anderson-coached Holmwood, led by Rose, dominated the girls’ events and won the Lois Sherwood Award for female high school teams. The other members of their team were Florence Nafamba, 19.41, Terrica Clarke, 20.02, Jovi Rose, 20.25, and Andrene Peart 21.08.

Holmwood led all the way in the 4x1500m with the same quartet who finished in the top four in the 5K. The running order was Peart, Nafamba, Clarke, and Rose. St Catherine High were second with St Jago High ‘A’ finishing third.

Nadia Kiffin-Green, head of sales and marketing at Restaurants Associates Limited, was very pleased with the support for the meet.

“The family at Burger King is so grateful as the weather was great and the schools turned out in large numbers,” Kiffin-Green said.

She stated that the introduction of the Big BK finish helped in the large turnout.

“Introducing the $400,000 cash prize really helped in the schools coming out in large numbers as they brought out their families. Schools do activities for fundraising projects every year. We at BK like to invest in youth, and the schools need funds for their sporting programmes, and this is one way in investing in that programme,” said Kiffin-Green.