By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

ONCE again, Atlantis resort provided an opportunity for its staff and the general public to participate in their annual Fun Run, Walk, Roll race at Montagu Bay.

Saturday morning's early riser drew more than 400 competitors as they "raced for the cause" with women wearing pink in support of breast cancer and men in blue for prostate cancer.

Iesha Cooper-Neely, the executive director of health and safety at Atlantis, said every year they encourage their employees to invite their family and friends to come out and participate.

"Today, this race was a battle for the cause, so we had the competitors battling for the genders and so we will be donating an amount of the funds collected for breast cancer and prostate cancer."

Cooper-Neely said they were particularly pleased with the amount of participants who competed and they are looking forward to increasing the numbers next year. 

Although they didn't put the emphasis on winning, Atlantis did recognise those individuals who came through in first place in the various categories.

• First female and male runner short course - Karta Butler-Wright and Ragh Cordova.

• First female and male runner long course - Kathryn Carsewell and Fabian Sautil.

• First female and male walker short course - Ferenesta White and Harold Brown.

• First female and male walker long course - Thelma Taylor and Mackey Williams.

• Oldest competitor - Michael Symonette.

• First roll only pusher - Linda Hamilton.

Butler-Wright, in winning her category, said she enjoys coming out every year to participate in the event.

"This time I decided to walk. It was really good," she said.

"I was doing my mile repeat, so part of it was my training for the Marathon Bahamas."

Additionally, Butler-Wright said any course for breast cancer she will be out to participate because she feels it's something that can affect anybody.

Brown, an executive in the Security Department at Atlantis, said the event was a good way for him to "jumpstart my exercise programme.

“This is the first year that I've done it, so I'm happy that I did it."

And the conditions were just right as he indicated that the "weather was excellent and the Police did a wonderful job making sure that the roads were cleared."

And like everybody else, he said he was even more motivated to participate this year and to win his category because he wanted to support the efforts to fight cancer in The Bahamas.

Symonette, at 83 years old, said he was supporting his daughter who works at Atlantis, but he certainly enjoyed the opportunity to go out and walk. "To me, it was okay. I'm accustomed to it," said Symonette about the walk.

He noted that as a worthy cause for cancer, he couldn't pass up the chance to make a contribution.

Amy Carter got a double treat as not only did she win a prize during the raffle, but so did her dog, Bagheera, named after the black panther from Rudyyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.

"Bagheera is very excited about winning and so I'm just glad that we decided to come out and participate," she stated. "The event was good. It was a little hot, but we did it in just over an hour, so it was certainly a good way to start the day."

Carter said she and Bagheera wanted to make sure that they did their part in supporting the efforts in the fight against cancer in The Bahamas.