The third annual staging of the GraceKennedy 5K Education Run saw approximately 2,600 participants made up of runners, walkers and contestants in wheelchairs, converging in the normally serene Downtown Kingston atmosphere recently.

Onlookers throughout the route cheered on the contestants as they made their way from the start line at GraceKennedy”s head office on Harbour Street. The route continued onto Highholborn Street, through Breezy Castle, right onto Port Royal Street, left onto Ocean Boulevard, left onto Royal Street, right onto Marcus Garvey Drive going onto Harbour Street, turning right onto Highholborn Street through Breezy Castle and finishing on Port Royal Street.

Emerging winners in the various categories were: Wheelchair female category — Coleen Morrison emerged winner finishing in 28.20 minutes, followed by Maureen Saunders in 39.35 minutes and third place Sophia Johnson in 40.15 minutes.

Wheelchair male category — Tanto Campbell finished first in 23.07 minutes, followed by Esslong Plummer placing second in 55 minutes.

Horace Burey copped first place in the Overall Male Open Run segment in 16.41 minutes with Duen Morgan placing second in 16:42 minutes, followed by Robin Rowe in third place in 16.46 minutes. In the Overall Female Open Run category, Karlene Blagrove placed first, finishing in 20:28 minutes, with Arieta Martin placing second in 20:54 minutes; and Janetta Robinson placing third in 21.41 minutes.

In the Male Overall Open Walk Daniel Barrett of Hardware and Lumber placed first in 28.11 minutes; second place went to Maxwell Smith from LIME, who did it in 28.11 minutes, and Kevin Walker of First Global Group in third place, clocking 30:17 minutes. The results for the Female Overall Open Walk saw first place going to Annie Williams in 34:46 minutes; second place to Sharon Edwards in 34:58 minutes and Jaceinth Williams of Fresh Start Jamaica third in 34:59 minutes.

Male Overall Corporate Run was won by Kemar Douglas of UWI Mona in 19:57 minutes; second place Michael Thompson of Hardware and Lumber in 20:23 minutes and David Rowe of Petcom finished third place doing 20:43 minutes.

Female Overall Corporate Run was won by Carey-Anne Williams of Bank of Jamaica in 23:58 minutes ahead of Jeneve Edwards of Dairy Industries in 25.10 minutes and third place was Cherine Richards of UWI, Mona in 25:44 minutes.

Male Overall Corporate Walk saw Daniel Barett of Hardware and Lumber finishing first in 28:11 minutes; Andre McIntosh of J Wray and Nephew placed second in 31:17 minutes and third place went to Wayne Miller, also of J Wray and Nephew in 31:34 minutes.

The Female Overall Corporate Walk resulted in Jaceinth Williams of Fresh Start Jamaica winning in 34:59 minutes.

In the Under-17 Male Overall Run Category, Dominic Powell of Bank of Jamaica emerged the winner making it to the finish line in 17.49 minutes; Jermaine James of Bank of Jamaica placed second in 18.56 minutes with Kimani Russell of First Global Group finishing third in 20.57 minutes.

In the Under-17 Female Overall Run, the winners were as follows: First place Gabrielle Hopkins of Advanced Integrated System in 28:45 minutes; Shinelle Waite of West Indies Home Contractors finished in second place in 30:43 minutes and Tashauna Grannom of GK Foods Central Limited was third in 30:51 minutes.

Corporate Jamaica came out in support of GraceKenndy’s stout effort to continue funding tuition and related expenses for secondary and tertiary level students in Kingston’s inner city communities.

The Best Overall Corporate Walk Team went to Hardware and Lumber and the Best Overall Corporate Run Team went to Bank of Jamaica.

According to Mark Anderson, Vice-Chairman of the Run Planning Committee: “The response to the run was tremendous.” The Committee hopes to reach an intended target of $3,000,000.

The GraceKennedy Education Run is staged in support of the educational programmes of the Grace & Staff Community Development Foundation. In addition to supporting the inner-city community programmes, the Education Run also aims to enhance efforts to position downtown Kingston as an attractive venue for events.