Johnson, Stoby Victorious in Ceres Juices 10k Series Opener

By BVIAA

Rosmond Johnson was the first woman across the line in Saturday's Ceres Juices 10K Series opener. Photo: Dean "The Sportsman" Greenaway

Rosmond Johnson was the first woman across the line in Saturday’s Ceres Juices 10K Series opener. Photo: Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway

Rosmond Johnson and Reuben Stoby had season opening victories on Saturday in the Ceres Juices 10K Series opener on the City Circuit course in Road Town.

Johnson was the only woman under 50 minutes finishing in 49 minutes and 23 seconds. She said she ran the course a few times in preparation for the race and said she found the segment in Lower Estate with an incline a bit challenging “But this morning, the race started out cool and I liked it as it was a little breezy, then it started to get hot and I stopped a couple of times,” she said. “I said since I was leading the women, I’d keep it up so I tried my best and I kept Zebalon (McLean) in my sight. I was surprised that I didn’t let him leave me. In the end, I sped up, I did it and I’m happy.”

Like Johnson, Stoby tried the course and said he found it difficult as he was running slow and thought it would be a tough race having a headwind to contend with. “Then you had Guy (Williamson) and (Julius) Farley to contend with and looking strong. I think Farley ran a really good race. He actually didn’t want me to lead at anytime so that was good,” noted Stoby who covered the course in 40 minutes and 30 seconds with Farley finishing second in 41:10. “Once we passed the four mile marker, I tried to put some distance and I was able to do that and relax and finish strongly.”

Farley said he was trying to run at his normal pace. “I came out this morning feeling good and I tried to set the pace and keep going with it,” he explained. “The guys kept challenging me and I kept going until I reached the round about and took a wrong turn. By time I got out the turn, the guys were already ahead of me, so I had to work a little harder to catch up with them. I tried hard and came out in second place so I feel glad about that.”

Final results:

Men
1. Reuben Stoby, 40: minutes and 30 seconds 2. Julius Farley, 41:10. 3. Guy Williams, 42:54. 4. Ian Montgomery, 43:22. 5. Simon Cook, 47:14. 6. Zebalon McLean, 49:08. 7. Adrian Dale, 52:01. 8. Ruairi Burke, 55:01. 9. Jonathan Addo, 55:06. 10. Luke Plummer, 55:09. 11. Shane Donovan, 55:51. 12. Gary Salter, 56:08.13. James Drury, 50:45. 14. Claudius Rhymer, 1:00:32. 15. Pablo De Felipe, 1:01:09. 16. Howard Moore, 1:04:35. 17. Stephen Beard, 1:11:03. 18. Jim Cullimore, 1:12:16. 19. Richard Parchment, 1:30:38

Women
1. Rosmond Johnson, 49:23. 2. NiMade Oniasih, 51:36. 3. Rebecca Cook, 51:58. 4. Kay Reddy, 52:41. 5. Gillian Plaxton, 53:07. 6. Claudia Ferrari, 54:40. 7. Lauren Julien, 56:21. 8. Judy Haycraft, 57:00. 9. Jessica Santos, 58:00. 10. Debbie Bell, 59:30. 11. Maxine Jones, 1:01:08. 12. Anna Kinkead, 1:01:55.13. Barbara O’Neal, 1:04.26. 14. Claire Burke, 1:08:06. Short Course: Philomena Robertson, Darwn Peters.