THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406120256
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940612 LENGTH: VIRGINIA BEACH
At about 8:15 a.m. Saturday, wheelchair athlete Scotty Pinto of Yorktown rolled across the finish line of the 5K run and became the first athlete to win a gold medal at the sixth annual Games.
{REST} Technically, there are a few others who might be tempted to make this claim. Since a few of the 33 Virginia Games sports featured divisions with just one competitor, some athletes were instant winners as soon as they registered at Friday's opening ceremonies.
The distinction belongs with Pinto, however, who as one of 161 5K finishers at Little Creek Amphibious Base was the first winner who actually beat someone.
A few seconds after Pinto finished, Raymond Ochs, a Virginia Beach resident and a perennial local roadracing favorite, strolled home to capture the men's division.
Ochs' time, 15:31, was 16 seconds faster than Pete Gibson of Murphreesboro, N.C. Chesapeake's Michael Fuller (16:14) placed third.
In the women's division, Virginia Beach's Wendy Brown caught and passed training partner Monica Reilly for the gold in 17:58. Reilly, also of Virginia Beach, came in five seconds later.
It was the first time Brown had broken 18 minutes.
``Wendy played it smart,'' said Reilly, who started out fast but couldn't lure Brown into doing the same. ``When I was dying in the third mile, she took over.''
The event, put on by the Tidewater Striders, went off smoothly, with no injuries or running casualties.
``That's not surprising. The Striders always put on a Cadillac event,'' one runner said. ``And I'm not even a Strider.''
by CNB