The third stage of the Ardenne Alumni Foundation Optima 5K Walk/Run has been hailed as a huge success by the event organizers with registration numbers surpassing the 1,000 figure that was targeted for this year. The event which was held on Sunday, February 1st, saw Garfield Gordon retaining the Men’s title while first-time entrant Dandi Williams took the female section.

Flo Darby, chairperson of the Alumni Foundation, was pleased with the growth of the event. “It was amazing. We got a lot of people, a lot of support. We have grown! Every year it gets bigger and bigger, and so this year I was so delighted at the number of persons who came out,” she said.

Derby handed over the plans for the wellness centre to be built from the proceeds of the 5K to the school’s acting principal. “We got the approval on Friday from the KSAMC, and it was such a delight. We have been waiting a long time for it because, as you know, schools have special particulars that they have to deal with and so we had to make sure that everything was in place. We have now done it and now we have our plan approved,” she beamed.

Jacqueline Pinto, acting principal of Ardenne High School, praised the persons who registered and those who were in attendance on Sunday. “For this year, the Optima 5K, I am very, very grateful for the attendance of the members who participated. It is much more than we had last year, we are aware that over 1000 persons have registered and we should have had about 800 here.”

Pinto spoke of plans to commence building of the wellness centre this year. “We got the plans for the construction of our wellness centre, it was presented by the chairperson of the Ardenne Foundation to the school, and we will be, with board approval, commencing the construction in this school year. We are grateful for all the financial and human resources support that we can get because this wellness centre will be a benefit to the children of Jamaica, not only Ardenne High School and the staff members, because we are going to have a wellness centre that is state of the art and the best in the Caribbean that can be a model for other educational institutions” she noted.

Westwood High School was one of the beneficiaries of the 5K and principal Karen Francis could not hide her delight at the support provided by Ardenne High to their rebuilding efforts after the devastation suffered during the passage of Hurricane Melissa. “I am truly elated as Ardenne Foundation has donated to us $1.1M for our post-hurricane Mellisa relief efforts. We are truly thankful to the foundation and, through the instrumentality of Mrs. Esther Tyson, former principal, for this donation. This will definitely be used to assist us in our rebuilding efforts and we are truly, truly grateful. We give God thanks, and we are happy for this contribution to our school,” she said.

Race Director, Alfred Francis of Running Events Jamaica spoke positively about the future growth of the event. “We have seen significant growth with this event, and I know that it will continue to grow. The energy that’s here is just all positive and it has turned out to be a wonderful morning. That’s the marketing strategy. Execute a well-done race and that markets itself. I know a lot of persons who came here this morning had a good time, the weather was right for running and the energy was good in itself, here at Ardenne.”

Garfield Gordon, winner of the Men’s 5K Run, was happy to retain the title he won last year. “This year I was cautious and the breeze made the route a bit harder because it was heavy, but I feel good that I got the win. The main aim was to come out and defend the title, so I am feeling really good. The cause is going towards wellness, so it’s a good cause.”

Dandi Williams, winner of the Women’s 5K Run, was happy to win on her first try. “I love the route, I love the uphill challenge, I think the uphill was at the right time and so the ending was good as well because I was coming down so it was a good race overall. I didn’t mind the wind to be honest.”

Williams also called for more support for the event next year. “I would definitely recommend this 5K, especially for the cause, because we are all about rebuilding the west. Definitely, I would encourage other people to support it next year.”

Brandon Simpson, Ardenne lum and Jamaican Olympian was delighted with the turnout. “I think it was an awesome turnout, every year it seems to be growing exponentially, we hope that this can continue. As long as we can help and support both Westwood (High) and the students of Ardenne High, coming up, I think it’s an awesome, awesome venture.”

Maurice Smith, another Jamaican Olympian who was there to support the event was also in favour of the initiative. “The purpose of the initiative is to build a wellness centre and support Westwood (High) and I think a wellness centre is not just for one place, it can support a whole community. Calabar and Ardenne are doing things together as well…so I really like the initiative,” he said.

Chris Taylor, another Calabar Olympian, was also in attendance and supported the Optima 5K.