After almost a year without track and field due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kevroy Venson showed how delighted he was to return to competitive action with a successful display at the Sigma Sagicor 5K on Sunday.

The former Calabar High school track star showed his quality in turning back a select field of hand-picked distance runners, including Calabar teammate Rivaldo Marshall, to win the event in 17 minutes and 14 seconds.

Due to the restrictions associated with the protocols surrounding the staging of the event, only a limited number of athletes were allowed to participate, 100, instead of the usual number which normally exceeded 25,000 persons. Additionally, the race was run completely inside of New Kingston, thus presenting a different type of challenge for the athletes.

Venson, who was participating at the event for the first time and ran for Train Fit Club, said that the win was a manifestation of the work he had put in ahead of the race.

“The run was great, I put in the work, so I know that I could come out here and deliver knowing that my coach and my mom and the whole staff got me into the Sigma 5K. I just want to say thank you, it was a pleasure and I am really grateful for the victory.

“[The run] was great knowing that I trained hard and I just came out here and delivered.”

Still, the ease of victory came as a surprise to the 19-year-old who described himself as a hard-working athlete.

“I didn’t come out here expecting an easy win because I know that I am not the fastest in my age group because there are athletes way better than me, but the type of athlete that I am, [I] train hard, [so] I just came out here and delivered,” said Venson.

He is convinced that based on the successful staging of the Sagicor Sigma 5K, more track and field events, including the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships, can be held this year.

“I think that we can have Champs and other track meets because we can abide by the rules of social distancing,” he argued.

Venson remains hopeful that there will be “Champs 2021” as he fears the fallout of a second successive cancellation of the historic track meet. “I am hoping there is a Champs because many athletes are putting in the work; they are training really hard. I wouldn’t want the Class 3 athletes to know that they trained hard and there is no Champs; that would kill their vibes,” he noted.

Champs provides the best opportunity for high school athletes to secure track and field scholarships to the United States and to local universities, and Venson explained why even some of the best Class One athletes need another shot at Champs.

“Most of the senior athletes have qualifying times to go overseas but most athletes didn’t really get what they wanted because of the cancellation of Champs in 2020, so I hope that this year we can have Champs,” Venson, who was denied the opportunity to etch his name in the record books for one last time last year, said.

“It affected me a lot because I put in the work to actually break the 1,500 record in 2020, but the cancellation was just a big breakdown for everyone,” he reasoned.

Venson will remain in training with his high school coach as he waits to take up his scholarship at Texas Tech University in the United States.