It was described as one of the closest races for the National Sports Commission (NSC) Sports Award when the commission released the names of the contestants in the 14 categories that are up for grabs in the 2009 Awards.
2008 female Sportswoman-of-the-Year Alika Morgan was given a chance to run for a second award but would have to contend against Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) Bantamweight Champion Shondel Alfred, Caribbean Squash Champions Nicolette Fernandes and Keisha Jeffrey, Athena Gaskin in swimming and Tricia Munroe in rugby.
2008 Senior Sportsman-of-the-Year Shivnarine Chanderpaul was not nominated this time around but his fellow West Indies team mates Ramnaresh Sarwan and Travis Dowlin are among the front runners for the 2009 title.
However, they will have to vie for the top spot against Guyana and the English speaking Caribbean highest rated fighter Leon ‘Hurry-up’ Moore, Caribbean distance ace Cleveland Forde, marksman Mahendra Persaud, racquet wielder Idi Lewis and Caribbean power lifting champ ‘Big’ John Edward.
Junior CARIFTA Games Gold medallist Javina Straker heads a strong field of six athletes for the junior sportswoman-of the-year award.
Straker’s opposition would be Guyana and West Indies female player Shemaine Campbell, hockey player Alysa Xavier, squash Keisha Jeffery and karate’s Christy Dey and Kristina Cheeks.
Meanwhile, teenage basketball star Akeem ‘The Dream’ Kanhai’s fantastic outing on the court is paying off as he was nominated with seven others for the Junior Sportsman-of-the-Year award but it would not be easy since his opponents are just as worthy of lifting the trophy.
Guyana and West Indies Under-19 opener Trevon ‘Bugsy’ Griffith who is at present with the Windies team contesting the ICC Youth World Cup in New Zealand is the other nominee for the award along with cyclist Geron Williams, squash player Jason Ray Khalil, track star Ricardo Martin, karate’s Kemo Cornelius, Vijai Rahim and Narayan Ramdhani.
For the sports team-of-the-year, Guyana’s national football team that won its first international tournament last year in Suriname will this time collide with Guyana’s national rugby squad which is also five-time Caribbean’s Seven Men’s Champions and two-time women winners.
Also in the hunt for the prestigious title are the Guyana National Junior Squash team, National Rifle Shooting team, the Pre-Cadet Table Tennis team, the Guyana Amateur Power Lifting team to last year’s Caribbean Championships and the Guyana National Women’s Under-19 Cricket team.
2008 Coach-of-the-Year Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover who led the Golden Jaguars in Suriname last year to their historic win was nominated once again for the trophy and will contend against Seven’s Rugby coach Laurie Adonis, Squash Coach Carl Ince, Athletics Coach Robert Chisholm and Boxing’s Lennox Daniels.
The Male Sports Personality-of-the-year race will be run by football promoter Kashif Muhammad, Athletics Coach Leslie Blacks, National Table Tennis Coach Linden Johnson, Guyana Football Federation General Secretary and President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union Noel Adonis, Badminton Association President Gokarn Ramdhani, CEO/Secretary of the RHTYSC Hilbert Foster, Guyana Boxing Board of Control President Peter Abdool and Toney Simon.
Dr. Karen Pilgrim and Nykasie Liverpool are the only two contestants for the female version of the award.
Also, only two persons received nominations for the Sports Award for Persons with Disability – Coleen Roberts and Gibran Hussein.
Meanwhile Stabroek News Sports Journalist Rawle Toney and Franklin Wilson, Rawle Welch and Michael Benjamin of Kaieteur News were the nominees for the Print Sports Journalist-of-the-Year award while in the non-print category the candidates are NCN’s Leana Bradshaw, Channel 9’s Iva Wharton and Mark Younge.
The panel will meet on Friday February 12 to make the final selection of the awards and then the grand ceremony in March at the National Cultural Centre.
