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The 13th La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge left from Cayo on Friday morning and finished in Belize City on Monday around noon. It came right down to the wire and we were there.

Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Less than a mile from the finish as the race passed Belama the lead teams were marking each other with the Belize Bank Team in front. It was a furious finish at the line with an extremely tight sprint between Caves Branch Outpost and the Belize Bank Team – each waiting for the other to make that dramatic last move.

Jerry Rhaburn, Caves Branch Outpost – First Place
“This was a crucial sprint, those guys are very fast and coming on to the finish, at a couple of minutes the canoe was sticking together because everybody was tired, everybody was trying their best, and couple of time we collapsed together.”

Shane Williams, Guardian Newspaper
“What made you guys win the sprint?”

Jerry Rhaburn,
“Well like I said everybody wanted to win and coming down to the end we didn’t ease up and they didn’t ease up but we got a little bit of an upper hand we used that.”

Daniel Cruz, Belize Bank - Second Place
“We tried our best to sprint but those guys are very fast and they beat us by like 5 seconds, I don’t know how much they beat us by. We did all we could but those guys are fast and they in shape just like us.”

Chris Guydis, CPBL – Third Place
“Over the last mile of the race I just sit in and tried to save for the last finish but they outsprint me on the sprint so what can I say.”

Shane Williams,
“Did you save a little for the sprint?”

Chris Guydis,
“I saved a little for the sprint but those guys are stronger than me at the end of the race so no excuses.”

Shane Williams,
“What is it like coming into the home stretch ad seeing the break?”

Sheldon Segura, Reagan International – Fourth Place
“Well I good and glad the race is finishing and everything. I was so glad.”

Shane Williams,
“So what are you going to do now to celebrate?”

Sheldon Segura,
“I am not going to celebrate, no. I will just have a two beers and that’s it.”

Jerry Rhaburn,
“The most important thing is to see the fans and hear the people on the banks cheeerig on for all their teams. It is like a big family going out there for the past four days and I just hope the race doesn’t die down. I’ve been paddling this race like for 11 years now and we keeping up."