And after the carnival, there was the Lionman competition. Mexican Jose Xol entered as the defending champion with many Belizeans namely the Choto brothers eyeing his crown. But would they be able to knock it off. 7NEWS was there.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Defending Lionman Jose Xol walked in with the bearing of a champion and the gait of a man on a mission. Past champions, the Choto brothers Jose and Giovanni were also ready – while another past champ Smoke Gladden was relaxed.
They started at 8:30 am as the morning sun danced on the sea for two laps around a circuit marked by these flags that would be.9 mile. Sea conditions were not ideal for an easy swim and pretty soon, the pack would be broken up with this lone Guatemalan. The Guatemalans established the clear lead one after the other, it is important because those minutes of advantage would not be easily overcome.
A Guatemalan Francisco Lima was first out of the water followed by Xol followed minutes later by the Choto brothers who are bike specialists but had much time to make up on the 8 lap, 24 mile distance.
For the relay Jim Scott was first out and handed it to Anthea Sutherland. The Chotos worked to make it up. While for the corporate relay leaders Kevin Seroki did the 6 mile run and past champ Jose Choto kept stalking the leader Jose Xol with Giovanni Choto in range but not close enough to strike. That left Xol to come in alone at the finish line with his Guatemalan flag in two and a half hours. One a half minutes later Giovanni Choto came behind.
Jules Vasquez,
How do you feel about today’s victory?
Jose Xol, Winner
“Happy because we came here to work hard and to win and we came to concentrate on that and thanks to God, we got it.”
Jules Vasquez,
Do you have a higher level than the locals?
Jose Xol,
“Perhaps in the water, in the water a little, but on the bicycle and in the marathon, they are good. “
Jules Vasquez,
You came in first two years ago and this year you came in second. You took the lead briefly out there, how did you do that?
Giovanni Choto, Placed Second
“I know I was riding good but those Guatemalans were running and swimming
hard so it was rough to beat them but we tried our best.”
Jules Vasquez,
When you took the lead briefly, were you aware you had taken the lead and did you have hope that if you could hold him off in the run I could win?
Giovanni Choto,
“I was trying to hold out the hardest I could to stay out there and try win but that Guatemalan is rough to run from. You can run from him but you can’t hide.”
Jose Choto,
“Well the foreigners we compete against are not men like you can say you will beat so easy so we satisfied with whatever God made us come in and thanks to the support we got from Mr. Cardona and whatever because we wouldn’t do the race, like I said from before, but Mr. Cardona came and offered a little help for me to train and I told Giovanni it is best we go and represent because it seems that without the representation from we the foreigners they just took over so we had to come out here and give them a little battle for it.”
And while the Choto’s will battle again next year, this year the prize for best relay triathlon team and best name went to the curiously title Reverse
Oreo Team.
Jim Scott, Team Reverse Oreo
“We really didn’t have a name for this team, we’re just good friends hanging out and we thought we would be a bit creative and of course everybody likes Oreo cookies but we’ve been waiting for that company to put a chocolate filling and we had to be a little bit creative and Anthea, working in the retail business at Hofius, she just came up with a very creative team name and we’re not going to argue with the only lady on our team.”
Kervin Seroki, Team Reverse Oreo
“It’s a good event to show young kids to get off the couch and come and participate in fitness and do that kind of thing. I am happy to come out and support these guys.”
James Adderley, News 5
“Of course we know Anthea is a former Cross Country champion, Anthea tell us abour your work today?
Anthea Sutherland, Team Reverse Oreo
“It was good, I liked it. I had a lot of breeze but no problem.”
Xol finished first but was 12 minutes behind last year’s time of two hours eighteen minutes. That may be because, as observers noted, he may have been made – accidentally to go an extra lap. But that was not confirmed and nothing was made of it. It’s worth noting that no females entered the individual triathlon this year.
