Pamenos eats humble pie

Pamenos Ballantyne was made to eat his words after being soundly beaten in the CLICO Trinidad and Tobago Marathon by the man whom he claimed was not in his class.

Ballantyne had to settle for the third spot as St. Lucian Victor Ledger ran away with the field winning in 2 hours 23 minutes 52 seconds. This was Ledger’s second triumph in the event he first won in 1996.{{more}}

And as the sevens clashed, Ledger, 40, and seven years older than Ballantyne finished seven minutes ahead of him. Ballantyne clocked 2 hours 30 minutes 31 seconds, his slowest time in the 26.2 mile event on Trinidad and Tobago soil.

Ballantyne, who has won the event on seven occasions, had thrown down the gauntlet to Ledger prior to the event.

In an interview with SEARCHLIGHT carried in last week’s edition, Ballantyne said, “Ledger is no threat as he is not in my class”.

But Ledger had the last laugh handing Ballantyne his second straight defeat in head to head clashes between the two.

Ledger beat him into second place in the marathon event of the Run Barbados series December 3, last year. Then the St. Lucian had a clear four minutes on the Vincentian and Caribbean most successful road racing athlete for the past decade.

Finishing second at last Sunday’s marathon was Trinidadian Ronnie Holassie who ended a seven year sabbatical from his country’s premier road race.

The Florida-based Holassie’s time was 2 hours 25 minutes 55 seconds.

Ballantyne’s, excuse this time around was “cramps” for his eventual placing in last Sunday’s race.

This adds to his previous apologies of “the water stations were too far apart”, “an old injury acted up”, “did not have enough Gatorade”, “a pain in the left ham string muscle”, “I have not been doing any speed work for the year”, and “Without a job, how can I get funds to properly train for events?”

Ballantyne collected TT$12 600, while Ledger’s purse was$25 200.