Athletes in New Delhi doing their best in 2010 Commonwealth Games
Belize competes at Commonwealth Games
Channel 5 Belize | Thousands of miles away in New Delhi, India, a contingent of Belizeans are competing against top athletes in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Controversy shrouded the games when they started because the facilities were either not up to par or had not been completed. But the games are now well underway and News Five got an update on the performance of our local cyclists and runners. The results are somewhat bittersweet. According to the National Olympic Committee, we’re bringing home the medals but the performance of the athletes is extremely encouraging. In fact, Belize has topped all other Caribbean countries in the individual time trials.
Owen Sonny Meighan, Public Relations Officer, National Olympic Committee
“Two riders that finished the race Greg Lovell and Edgar Arana did very well. Greg finished twenty-sixth and Mr. Arana finished forty-sixth. We placed twelfth out of thirty-three countries that took part in that road race.”
Delahnie Bain
“And this is the first time that we have riders actually completing the race?”
Owen Sonny Meighan
“Completing the course yes, which is a plus for us. It shows that our riders are—we’re not winning medals yet but we’re getting better and better every time.”
Delahnie Bain
“We also had some riders participating in the time trials. Could you tell us about that?”
Owen Sonny Meighan
“Yes, our best female raider, our number one female rider, Shalini Zabaneh, took part in the time trials and she did well but that’s a very competitive individual race; even more so than the road races. Shalini finished eighteenth in the time trials and she did very good time. Her time was the best she ever done and the competition was stiff, very stiff.”
Delahnie Bain
“And we had three male riders as well.”
Owen Sonny Meighan
“Yes, we had Byron Pope, we had Mr. [Edgar] Arana and Mr. [Jairo] Campos. They all took part in the time trials. Overall they did well.”
Pope, Arana and Campos placed twenty-fifth, thirty-eighth and forty-fifth respectively. In the female time trials, Belize placed tenth of fourteen countries and for the males we were fifteenth out of twenty-nine.
