With a large haul of medals and several new initiatives implemented by stakeholders in the sport fraternity, nominees are eagerly awaiting the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport awards ceremony where 23 honours including three new medals will be given out.
Spanning a 56-year history, the awards are held annually for sporting personnel and associations that gave exemplary performances during the previous year. The awards fall under the purview of the National Sports Commission (NSC) headed by Director of Sports, Neil Kumar.
This year’s ceremony will feature three new sports awards for the best primary school, secondary school and the community in sports development. In addition, there will be 13 categories for individuals and three awards for organizations including the award for the national sports team of the year.
Each association is required to submit nominations for the necessary categories and a panel of judges then determines the winners. However, this will not be the case for the three newly added categories, which Kumar said will be adjudged by the NSC and not the panel of judges. Calls for nominations began since November and will close on January 15. No late submissions will be considered.
Of the 13 individual categories, six are allotted to the athletes based on their performance throughout the year with the Senior and Junior Sportsman and Sportswoman being the most coveted honour. These categories also feature a runner-up position. Cricketer Ramnaresh Sarwan is the reigning Sportsman of the Year while world ranked squash player Nicolette Fernandes has won four Sportswoman of the Year awards.
For the 2010 awards, athletics may be poised to reclaim the Sportswoman of the Year with Aliann Pompey being its most considered nominee thanks to her unprecedented international performances. Pompey won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games. She also has the honour of being the first Guyanese to make it to the finals of a world indoor event when she ran in the 400m race at the 13th IAAF World Indoor Championships. Pompey also bagged a silver medal at the Central America and the Caribbean (CAC) Games.
Women’s International Boxing Association bantamweight champion Shondell Alfred is also on the radar for the honour. Alfred upheld her title in her match with Corinne DeGroot and against Olga ‘La Mona’ Julio. Defending national squash champion Fernandes is also in the race. She is currently ranked 50 in the Women’s International Squash Players Association (WISPA), having moved 20 places in the world ranking since last year January. Fernandes made it to six semi-finals in the WISPA World Tour last year. She also participated in the local National Squash Championship, in both the men’s and women’s divisions and emerged victorious and was crowned both the ‘king’ and ‘queen’ of squash.
In the men’s category, Hugh Ross leads the considerations with his Mr Universe win of the Master Over-40 at the National Amateur Body-Builders’ Association 60th Mr Universe Competition. Jonathan Foo’s pull through for the cricket team to make Guyana the inaugural winners of the Caribbean Twenty20 also puts him in good stead for the honour. Also, in the junior categories, CARIFTA Games gold medallist Jevina Straker leads the nominees.
In the team category the men’s national rugby teams are expected to lead the list of nominees alongside the national cricket team.
Both stand as current reigning Caribbean Champion in their respective disciplines and both fell through at the international level.
The Rugby team won consecutive titles at the CAC Games and the North American and the Caribbean Rugby Association Championship and the cricket team won the Caribbean Twenty20.
However Rugby fell to the wayside at the CWG where they failed to win any matches, a pattern copied by the cricket team when they performed at the Airtel Championship in India.
In the association category the rise of the Guyana Table Tennis Association in the latter half of 2010 is also expected to stand out against the other contenders. And, if the hosting of tournaments counts for anything the associations for Rugby, Chess and Karate are also expected to impress the judges.
