Eubanks, Pitter top Burger King 10K

Raymond Graham, Gleaner Writer

The
2011 Burger King Grand Prix Road Race Series came to an end yesterday
with the staging of the Burger King Portmore 10K, where Shawn Pitter and
Marleena Eubanks continued their dominance by capturing the respective
male and female titles to record their third win a row and in the
process, crowned overall champions.

Winner of the Montego
Bay Burger King 7K and the Holland Bamboo 5K Pitter, representing
Discover U Athletics Club, once again proved he is the best in the
country on the road as despite being in a keen tussle at the 5K mark in
Newlands with Ebony Track Club's Kirk Brown, he showed his class in the
latter stage of the event to pull away and win in 30 minutes, 47
seconds.

Pitter thus earned the event's first prize of $10,000 and
also the overall male Grand Prix individual prize of $40, 000. Brown
was second in 31:09, while Rupert Green finished third in 32:02.

Time disappointment

Despite winning easily, Pitter was disappointed with his time.

"I
am happy for the win once again as I have been working extremely hard,
but I am kind of disappointed because with the race running so early in
the morning I washoping to record a faster time."

It
was also smooth sailing for Eubanks, the Edwin Allen High School
athlete. Despite being some 30 metres behind teammate Desreen Montague
at the halfway stage, Eubanks took charge at the 7K mark and moved away
from her teammate and the rest of the field for a convincing win,
clocking 39:05. Montique (39:51) and Areita Martin (40:22) ended second
and third, respectively.

"I am happy for another win and I have
worked real hard so far this season and I am in great shape going into
the upcoming track season," said Eubanks.

Minute's silence

Holmwood
Technical's boys and St Jago High's captured the high schools' team
prize, Holmwood tallied 45 points to get the better of Bellefield (56)
and St Jago (60). In the female category, St Jago (37) beat Edwin Allen
(38) and Vere Technical (62), while Holmwood (79) ended fourth.

There
was a record 715 entrants at yesterday's event and just before the
start of the race, meet director and starter Alfred 'Franno' Francis
asked spectators and athletes to acknow-ledge a minute's silence for the
passing of Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association president,
Howard Aris.

Both St Jago and Holmwood tied for first for the
overall top male prize, but after a tiebreak St Jago were adjudged the
winners, with Bellefield getting third. In the female section it was
Edwin Allen which came out on top, with St Jago second and Holmwood third.