ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA CYCLING ASSOCIATION NAMES A 15 MAN OECS SQUAD CAPTAINED BY MARSH
Tuesday 7th June 2011
Robert Marsh will captain a 15 men team in the 2011 OECS Cycling Championships on Sunday 15th June. A 15 men team selected to represent Antigua and Barbuda in Sunday’s OECS Cycling Championships.
The team will be lead by the highly experienced Robert Marsh who placed 2nd in 2010 OECS Championships held in Grenada. However, Antigua marque rider will be our Olympic Scholarship holder, Reigning OECS Champion, Jyme Bridges.
National Time Trial Champion, Marvin Spencer will also be part of the Nation’s ace team which also includes Ken Jaro Jackson and veteran, Dale Richardson who replaces Omari King who unfortunately had to withdraw after suffering a fall in Sunday’s trials event.
2nd Team – will be driven by experience of Brian Lyn, National Road Champion, Cosmos Richardson, Abevia McDonald, Alvin Merrick and Belgian, Chiel Lefebure.
3rd team – Also consist of experienced and new and upcoming riders which includes Veteran, Neil Lloyd and Patrick Peters, Devon Norris, Randy Bobby Simon and Clint Henry who made the team after the withdrawal of Omari King. Clint started racing this year and showed some vast improvement that made him earn a spot on the team.
The Caribbean Cycling Federation rules require the host country to field two teams consist of 5 riders. But due to the decline of number of riders from other OECS Countries CCF OECS sub-committee allowed Antigua and Barbuda to fill 3 teams. Antigua and Barbuda is one of the few OECS member countries that can comfortably field 15 riders of this standard. The 15 men National Cycling Squad will unveil and new National Cycling outfit at Sunday’s event.
Meanwhile, a positive reception of the championships has received from the OECS countries; so far all six active cycling countries had confirmed participation. Tortola, BVI was the 1st to confirmed with representation coming from 4 riders. BVI also confirmed participation from their top rider who is presently training in Cuba, Darel Christopher Jr. Anguilla also confirmed 4 riders with Danny Lard as one of the race favourite. Grenada confirmed 6 riders which include last year’s 3rd runner up, Sydney Walters, Tyrone Thomas and Danny Donelan all are respectable rider of the region. St. Lucia confirmed 6 riders which includes 2009 OECS Champion, USA based Sydney Charles, the Maraj twin brothers and Cuba based, Fidel Mangal. St. Kitts/Nevis confirmed 4 riders with their top triathlete, Reginald Douglas flying their flag. St. Vincent confirmed 7 riders included are Miami based, Dominic Ollivierre, Shimano Bailey and Tortola based, Orano Andrews.
President and Secretary General of the Caribbean Cycling Federation, Trevor Bailey of St. Vincent and Cyril Mangal of St. Lucia will also be in attendance. Antigua’s Jyme Bridges and Robert Marsh is the reigning OECS champions. Bridges won the 75 mile extremely hilly event held in Grenada last year and Robert Marsh placed 2nd. The two will be defending their title and are also considered as race favourites.