Unity Relay 2019 10 teams at the starting line for the 10th relay |04 December 2019
This year’s Unity Relay, the annual team endurance event, will take place on Saturday and so far, 10 teams have registered for the experience which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Since the first competition in 2009, the Unity Relay has over the years become very popular, gathering teams from various working institutions, sports clubs, as well as schools.
The current record for the event is 4 hours 05 minutes 25 seconds (4h05:25) set by the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) ‘A’ team in 2017.
The winning team made up of long distance specialist Iven Moïse, along with Shane Boniface, Tony Victor, Melina Crispin, Terrence Tamboo, Elvin Bonne, Davis Bonne, Roch Bamboche, Guillo Charlot and civilian Ishveen Paulin broke the previous record of 4h09:29 set by the East Coast Athletics Club in 2012.
The 10 squads ready for Saturday are SPDF one and two, International School, SRC RIOT, Running Buddies, Port Glaud Shooting Stars one and two, Indian Ocean Tuna Ltd (IOT), Judiciary and Top Racers.
As has been the case during past events, everyone except those taking over after the 5km or 10km mark must run from Stade Linite to Moniman Linite, then the first runner of each team will continue for the first 5km or 10 km, while the others board their vehicle.
After the 10km mark, which is at North East Point, the next team member will run for any distance, until he or she is tired and puts his or her hand up for substitution.
The official in the team vehicle will have to take note of the changes in the runners and time run and ensure that there is one official runner (identified by the wrist band) on the road at all times.
To finish, all team members join the last runner at the Moniman Linite roundabout to finish the last kilometre together inside Stad Popiler.
The “official” last runner can run faster and finish the race and then go back to meet the others.
Teams should have a maximum of 10 members, with at least two men or women.
Roland Duval
