Guyana and West Indies cricketer Devendra Bishoo and Commonwealth and Caribbean powerlifting record holder Dawn Barker were named senior male and female sports personalities of 2011 by the National Sports Commission yesterday.
The two, along with the other winners at the nomination exercise yesterday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, will be receiving their awards on March 16 when the NSC national sports awards ceremony is held at the National Cultural Centre.
Both athletes excelled at home and on the international scene in their respective sports, and received worldwide acclaim after their various feats.
Bishoo (7 votes) comfortably took the title ahead of ALBA Games medallist and Olympic-bound sprinter Winston George (3 votes) and eventual runner-up Randolph Morgan, Caribbean and Commonwealth gold medallist and record holder. Barker on the hand beat runner up and table tennis player Trenace Lowe and world-rated squash player Nicolette Fernandes.
Bishoo, 26, made his international debut last March against England when he was called by West Indies selectors to represent the Caribbean side during the ICC World Cup in India. The Berbician right arm leg spinner captured three wickets for 34 runs from his 10 overs in that match.
After his return from the World Cup he made his T20I and Test debuts against Pakistan in St. Lucia and at the Guyana National Stadium where he took 4-17 (4) and 4-68 from 25 overs respectively. He has so far taken 39 test scalps, 20 ODI and six T20I wickets, which aided in him being named ICC’s Emerging Player of 2011 last September.
Barker, 31, and competing in the 84+ kg divisions, was the gold medallist at the fifth International Powerlifting /North American Powerlifting Federation championships in the Cayman Islands and the best lifter after she established new records in the squat (227.5kg) and deadlift (182.5kg) to record an overall total of 517kg. Her next feat came in July at the NAPF Championships in Miami, Florida where she performed a squat of 237.5kg and a deadlift of 192.5kg to amass a total of 540kg.
These records are Commonwealth records.
On the other hand, table tennis player Nigel Bryan and boxer Imran Khan were named joint winners for the award of the Junior Sportsman-of-the-Year.
Bryan emerged winner of the Cecil James Memorial Under-18 Open Junior tournament last October in Trinidad & Tobago at the Maloney Indoor Sport Arena.
In the championship match, the Guyanese ping-pong star outlasted Orell Cooper in five sets, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 11-13, 11-3.
Khan was an ALBA Games bronze medallist in Venezuela last year and is also Guyana’s national amateur flyweight champion and Road-To-London Olympic Games pugilist.
Eleven-year-old badminton player Priyanna Ramdhani will be the recipient the Junior Sportswoman-of-the- Year award. She currently holds the girls’ under-11 and under-13 singles titles. Also, last July at the Pan American Badminton Championships in Jamaica she won third place in the under-11 mixed doubles category where she partnered with El Salvador’s Pedro Vasquez.
She also gained two second place medals in the girls’ under-13 singles and the under-13 mixed doubles when she teamed up with Barbadian Jordan Ollivierre at the Caribbean Badminton Championships held in August. Middle distance athlete and double Carifta 1500m champion Jevina Straker is the runner-up in the junior category.
Delroy Sookram was the winner of the award for Persons with Disabilities while cyclist Walter Grant Stuart was the runner-up.
National cycling coach Hassan Mohamed was named Male Sports Coach-of-the-Year while Theodore Henry was adjudged the runner-up. Other contestants for the award were Carl Ince (squash), Lyndon Wilson (athletics), Wayne Dover (football) and Terrence Poole (boxing).
President of the Guyana Cycling Federation, Cheryl Thompson was the winner of the Female Sports Official award.
In other award categories Stabroek News’ Orlando Charles won the Sports Journalist Photographer title for the second consecutive year while Kaieteur News Edison Jefford won the Print Sport Journalist of the Year award and Guyana Times Avenash Ramzan gained the nod for the Non-Print category.
Guyana Table tennis Association (GTTA) won the Sports Association of the Year title and the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) was named the Most Improved Association. The senior Golden Jaguars male team won the title of Sports Team of the Year.
On the other hand, Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara, was named the Best Community for Sports, North Georgetown Primary and Marian Academy were named the Best Primary and Secondary Schools for 2011.
