As expected, Guyana, West Indies and Durham middle order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul was elected Sportsman of the Year 2007 while Alicia Fortune gained the nod for Sportswoman of the Year when the selection panel of the National Sports Commission met yesterday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Homestretch Avenue.
Chanderpaul represented the West Indies creditably in 2007 to England where he topped the aggregates with 465 (average 116.25) after his consistent performances for the regional side. He also toured Zimbabwe where he again came out on top averaging 166.00 in the three matches he played.
His overall first class aggregate for the 2006/07 season was 1131 at an average of 49.17. He was given multiple nominations for his award by various sports associations that are not associated with cricket and came out on top over West Indies Sevens Rugby captain Claudius Butts.
After three rounds of voting, Fortune was declared the Sportswoman of the Year over middle distance athlete Alika Morgan. Morgan also placed second to Ashley Khalil in the Junior Sportswoman of the Year category. Fortune’s feats for 2007 include winning the 100 and 200 metres sprint at the National Senior Cham-pionships held at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary. She also competed overseas and put in creditable performances winning the 50, 100 and 200 metres races in record times of 6, 11.9 and 23.9 seconds.
Khalil, well known for her squash fame, performed well on the local and regional circuit where she won the Junior Caribbean Squash title. She also competed in the National Badminton Tournament, coming out on top in the Under-15, U-17 and U-19 categories in that sport over her more illustrious counterparts, placing her in Guyana’s sporting archives.
Jacobs was at the helm when Guyana retained the TLC Regional U-19 cricket competition in St Kitts this year. He also had the opportunity of leading the West Indies U-19 team in the Regional KFC Limited overs cricket competition.
Despite her feats on the local, regional and international circuits, once again Morgan had to settle for being the second best Junior Sportswoman around.
Her performances should have placed her in good stead as she was a certain medalist in any of the competitions she entered whether at home or abroad. Leading up to the nominations, Morgan had participated in some nine competitions for the year with her lowest placing being fourth in the women’s category of the Run Barbados 10k road race.
Although placing fourth, she was the first under-19 and Caribbean athlete to finish.
For the fourth time, Stabroek Sports photographer Lawrence Fanfair was adjudged the Sports Journalist/Photographer of the Year, while Avenash Ramzan was selected as the Sports Journalist (Non-Print).
Kaieteur News’s Rawle Welch and Franklin Wilson will share the Sports Journalist (Print) award.
The Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) won the Sports Association of the Year award while the Guyana Hockey Federation secured the Most Improved Association of the Year Award.
The female Sports Personality is none other than Stephanie Fraser with Chetram Singh gaining the nod on the distaff side over president of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) Afeeze Khan. GRFU’s Sherlock Solomon was adjudged Sports Coach of the Year while the GRFU won approval as the Sports Team of the Year.
The presentation of the awards will be held on 8th February at a venue to be named.
