The National Sports Awards returns to the ornate splendor of the National Cultural Centre tomorrow evening to reward and celebrate the achievements of the standout men and women in the local sports arena.
Tomorrow’s event hosted by the National Sports Commission (NSC) gets underway from 18.00 hours and will encompass the best performances by the nation’s top athletes in 2021 and 2022.
While many will receive awards for their performances in the various categories, the highlight of the evening will be the naming of the Male Sportsman and Female Sportswoman of the year.
It is one the most coveted national awards an athletes can have on their resume.
In this publication’s opinion, cricketer, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, boxer, Desmond Amsterdam, squash player Nicolette Fernandes and IFBB Elite Pro, Rosanna Fung are the front runners for the marquee trophies.
The highlight for Chanderpaul for 2022 was his selection to the West Indies Test Team. In the First-Class match played against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra, Chanderpaul stroked 119 and 56 to secure his debut spot in the first test. He demonstrated that he was ready for the level of competitiveness by aggregating 160 runs in two tests against Australia with an average of 40.0 and a highest score of 51. His scores in the four innings showed consistency with records 51 and 45 in the first test and 47 and 17 in the second.
Amsterdam created history for Guyana in 2022 having won a bronze medal at the American Boxing Confederation (AMBC) Championships in Ecuador. This feat ushered him into being the first Guyanese amateur boxer to win money at the championship. Amsterdam also won a bronze medal at the South American Games in Paraguay and battled to the quarterfinals of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. His achievements during the year allowed him to become the highest ranked Guyanese boxer (23rd) by the International Boxing Association (IBA).
Fernandes, 39, started 2022 with a gold for Guyana at the Pan American Squash Championships in Guatemala. Fernandes then became the first Guyanese to win a World Master’s title when she secured a gold medal at the World Master’s Championship last August in Poland.
Fernandes, who was named the Sportswoman of the Year in 2009, ended last year with a silver medal in the Women’s Singles at the South American Games in Paraguay.
Fung, 22, won a bronze medal at the CAC Bodybuilding Championships in El Salvador in 2021 and then followed that up by winning the National Miss Bikini title. In 2022, she won three gold medals at the CAC in Barbados and earned the coveted Pro Card. Just last month, she repeated as champion on the local stage.
The awards will be held for the first time since 2019 which awarded outstanding performers for 2018. At those awards, Olympian and national table tennis player Chelsea Edghill was named senior Sportswoman of the Year while badminton’s Priyanna Ramdhani copped the junior female Sportswoman of the Year award.
National basketball captain Stanton Rose Jr., was adjudged the Sportsman of the Year and Squash’s Shomari Wiltshire the junior Sportsman of the Year.
This year each of the awardees will receive financial incentives.
