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Darren Matthews (left) was the winner of male BAR singles and Amaris Chase (right) was in a league of her own as she won the female BAR singles.

Well done!

Darren Matthews and Amaris Chase win BAR singles

Darren Matthews and Amaris Chase are the champions of The Diamonds International World Championship Qualifying Barbados Adventure Race individual event.

The men’s singles got off to an early start with the first of two heats leaving the start line of the 3km obstacle course at 6:30 a.m.

But it was the second heat the scorched the course to produce the winner from the 26 overall competitors in the male category.

Along the course there was a 4-ft wall, a cargo net climb, a komodo dragon crawl, log carry, a 8 -ft wall, inverse wall, rolling thunder (tyre wall), monkey bars, atlas stone carry, electric avenue, bucket carry, rope climb and slick wall.

In the men’s event the lead changed a number of times, in a feat the eventual winner described as a mental challenge. At the start there was a quick tempo set at the front with Matthews settling into second place after the first obstacle was cleared, however as they approached the inverse wall, which was the fifth obstacle on the course, Matthews had taken up the front running but mentioned he felt as though he wanted to throw up.

"I had intended to start hard but not as hard as the other guy took off, but that played into the hands of the more endurable guys because it kinda of waned out the muscle guys early on so that was in my favour and I knew I just had to go with them to an extent. Coming onto the tyre wall it was still early in the race and after going out that hard I felt it in my stomach so I was not mentally prepared going into the tyre wall and I kinda failed on it.”

It was here that Matthews had to pay the penalty of 15 burpees which cost him the lead at that point as Adande Browne took over through the next three obstacles along the course. Matthews described to burpees as a ‘Heart Rate challenge’.

Though he described the course as tough Matthews said the competition was his toughest challenge as he felt the other guy was a lot more prepared than he was and he was the toughest obstacle and they battled all the way down to the final obstacle.

Matthews managing to win in 19 minutes 7 seconds, while Browne stopped the clock less than 10 seconds adrift at 19 minutes 15 seconds.

Matthews had high praise for the organisers saying that “the course was well organised and well planned kudos to the organisers as it was a phenomenal job”.

A minute behind these two was third place finisher Demron Thompson in 20 minutes 16 seconds.

The women’s winner, Amaris Chase dominated the field from the onset winning in 22 minutes and 30 seconds, which was over five minutes clear of the second place finisher. Chase’s time was so impressive that it placed her 11th overall.

Second place Danielle Gonsalves out sprinted Michelle Dowell after they both cleared the last obstacle practically together. Gonsalves clocked 28 minutes 18 seconds while Dowell was a second behind in 28 minutes 19 seconds.

There were 11 overall female starters.

The group challenges were scheduled for yesterday afternoon and this afternoon at the same location.

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