There seems to be no answer to stopping the UWI Blackbirds.
Yesterday the Blackbirds won the inaugural Scotia Bank Super Team Fitness Challenge which was organized by the St Philip Independence Committee and involved a walk, a run, a cycling race as well as a challenging swim in Skeeteās Bay before the event climaxed at Three Houses Park with an obstacle event.
At the end, the Blackbirds flew away with the top prize of $1 500 after finishing their events in one hour, 25 minutes and 15 seconds to pip home team, the Bayfield Boys, 1:25:37.Ā Third was BDF, 1:28:17 with Elite Distance placing fourth, 1:28:37 and the other BDF team ending fifth in a time of 1:30:08.
Two other teams, St Philip and St Andrew competed but they were scratched after they could not field representatives in one of the five legs.Ā However, some ofĀ the greatest thrills occurred in the obstacle event with coordinators Carl āAlfā Padmore and Mac Fingall enlisting many of the over 30 spectators who turned up to assist in various areas of officiating.
The BDF teams were at home in handling the various crawls, rope climbs and monkey bars challenges which reduced valuable minutes in the race.Ā However, Shari Cumberbatch out of St Andrew along with national runner Jeal Williams showed tremendous application in battling the arduous course for their teams.
Padmore in thanking Scotia, Hanschell Inniss, the Barbados Defence Force, May Care Pharmacy, Max Auto Clinic and the Nation Publishing Co. Ltd for their support expressed pleasure with the success of the inaugural event.
āThe success in this first challenge was seen in the enthusiasm and application of the team members and we saw a number of national athletes from a variety of disciplines as well as some of Barbadosā top coaches all being a part of the events.
āOf course, with Scotia indicating that they will be with us next year we will look as ways of improving the challenge as some of the cyclists suggested that we increase the distance of that race.
āFurthermore, the invaluable inputs from Mac and the Bag [Red Plastic Bag] helped in generating the success which we got from this inaugural challenge,ā said Padmore.