Barbados’ Amber Joseph at the top of the podium after winning the Juvenile Women’s road race, second was Alyssa Rowse (right) from Bermuda and third Tachana Dalger from Suriname.
Winner of the Juvenile Division Enrique De Comarmond (Trinidad), second was Joshua Rawlins (Trinidad) and Luke Staffner (Barbados) was third.
Barbados’ Amber Joseph wins gold
Barbados’ Amber Joseph captured gold when the curtains came down on the Junior Caribbean Road Race Championships on Sunday.
With the start-finish line at Lucas Street, Joseph hit the final corner in front and when she started to sprint there was no catching her at the end of a five-lap women’s race.
The course was the reverse to the time trial they did the day before.
The 17-year-old Joseph improved on her second-place finish at the time trial as she outsprinted the time trial winner, Alyssa Rowse from Bermuda, who was seconds behind.
Joseph clocked one hour, 35 minutes and 09.79 seconds over the 50.5km distance.
Almost two minutes behind in third place was Tachana Dalger from Suriname and fourth was Taralee Ordonez from Belize.
Barbados’ Luke Staffner outsprinted the peloton to capture the silver medal in the Juvenile men’s race, which completed six laps of the course for a distance of 60.6 km.
Staffner and the rest of the field said goodbye to the two leaders of the race – Trinidadians Enrique De Comarmond and Joshua Rawlins – after the fourth lap.
De Comarmond then pulled away from his teammate to complete the double in a time of one hour, 46 minutes and 06.17 seconds.
Just over a minute adrift and not challenged for second was Rawlins.
There was a four-minute wait after the winner before the third-place finisher was decided in the bunch sprint, which Staffner (1:50:11.0) managed to edge out the field.
Nicholas Narraway (1:50:12.42) from Bermuda was fourth and Ziani Burgesson (1:50:12.57) also from Bermuda was fifth.
Barbados fielded four riders – Jacob Kelly, Kyle Gill, Dillon Gray and Dominic Howard – in the Junior Men’s Division, which covered seven, 12.7 km laps of a slightly different course for a distance of 88.9km. Their course took them over Stewart’s Hill.
Kelly recovered well from three mechanical problems to finish fourth as it was Matthew Oliveira of Bermuda that completed the double over the weekend as he added to his time trial victory with the road race title.
Oliveira, who is the Commonwealth champion, clocked two hours, 32 minutes and 18.67 seconds, and was almost ten minutes clear of the second-place finisher, Emmanuel Gayral (2:42:14.71) from Antigua and Barbuda. Third was Adrien Urcel (2:44:02.44) of Guadeloupe.
Barbados’ Howard finished sixth (2:44:59.04) and Gill was eighth in 2:45:49.37. Gray had a fall early in the race and was not classified as a finisher. (CG)