Athletes take to the streets for return of Cedartown 5K
♦ Event for elite wheelchair athletes returns for first time since Covid-19 pandemic
Reunions and fellowship were held in the homes, businesses and meeting places around Cedartown last week. A family that hadn’t been able to get together for three years celebrated again.
The organizers and volunteers of the Cedartown Wheelchair Athlete Training Camp and 5K once again welcomed competitors from near and far to Polk County with the promise of hospitality and, despite a bit of a tease from Mother Nature, a road race through the city’s neighborhoods.
This year marked the 19th edition of the event, culminating in the Cedartown Wheelchair 5K Road Race on Thursday, June 30. It was the first time since 2019 the race was able to be held as plans for the 2020 and 2021 events were forced to be scrapped because of the COVID-19 pandemic and international travel restrictions.
World champion athlete Daniel Romanchuk won the men’s open division of the 5K, coming in at 10 minutes and 4 seconds. It was his fourth victory in a row.
The women’s open division was won by Nigeria’s Hannah Babaloa with a time of 14:25. While not new to the Cedartown 5K, it was her first win in the event. Christian Torres won the men’s open quad division, while Jose Pulido won the men’s masters division.
The pack of 25 competitors made Cedartown their home for a few days as they prepared for the wheelchair races at the annual Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta on July 4.
“I was impressed with all of them. I mean, we all knew that Daniel would be out in front. That’s what he does. And he does it really well. He’s been doing that since he was 13 years old,” said organizing committee chair Dave Grove.
Romanchuk, who has won several world-renowned marathons and is a four-time Peachtree winner, holds the course record for the Cedartown race and is a decorated Paralympian having won the gold medal in the men’s 400 meters T54 event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics held in Tokyo.
While he did have to leave for a commercial shoot in California in the middle of last week’s camp, he made sure to be back for Thursday’s race.
“He comes because he loves coming to Cedartown,” Grove said.
One semi-tradition of the race is the weather, which seems to always bring rain just before the start and this year’s return was graced with a rain shower about 45 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the men’s open division.
“If you looked at the radar, you could just see this train of three little storms headed right for Cedartown,” Grove said. “So that we got the race in tonight is amazing to me. I didn’t think we were going to be able to pull it off, which would have been really devastating for the athletes and for our committee and for the community. So I’m glad we got to run it.”