media_artricles :: 2013

Walcott, Baptiste head First Citizens awards nominees

Olympic javelin gold medallist Keshorn Walcott and women’s 100- metre finalist Kelly-Ann Baptiste are the favourites to take home top honours when the 2012 First Citizens Sports Foundation Sports Awards comes off on March 22 at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s. It will be held under the distinguished patronage of His Excellency, President of the Republic of T&T, Anthony Carmona. The 19-year-old Toco-born Walcott capped off an outstanding 2012 of achievements when he stunned the world by capturing gold in the men’s javelin final at the London Olympic Games with a throw of 84.58 metres.

The gold medal was only the second won by T&T at any Olympic games and came 26 years after sprinter Hasely Crawford’s gold in the men’s 100m final at the Montreal Games. In winning the Olympic title, Walcott became only the second non-European to take the crown in 100 years of the Olympic games, the last being an American back at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Less than a month earlier, Walcott had won the javelin crown at the 14th IAAF World Junior Track & Field Championship in Barcelona with a throw of 78.64 metres, while he also topped his rivals at the Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships in El Salvador and won the Carifta Games title for a fourth time.

Since his historic performance in London and the others leading up to it, Walcott has racked up a number of awards internationally and locally. Among those was his haul of four awards at the second annual Spirit of Sport Awards which took place at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, in December. Walcott walked away with the awards for Break Through Athlete, Consistent Performer, Male Athlete of the Year, and Sport Performance of the Year, the latter of which was decided entirely by fans who voted on Facebook, Twitter or the Sports Company’s Web site.

He was also voted the IAAF’s Male Rising Star recipient in Barcelona and copped the Outstanding Youth Achiever Award at the 30th Commonwealth Sports Awards for his performances during the period of July 2011 to June 2012. Walcott also copped the T&T Olympic Committee’s Junior and Senior Sportsman of the Year awards at the committee’s 18th annual award ceremony last December. Other notable nominees includes West Indies (WI) spinner Sunil Narine and Walcott’s fellow London Olympic games’ participants, Njisane Phillip (cycling), Andrew Lewis (sailing), Roger Daniel (shooting) and swimmer George Bovell III, a finalist in the men’s 50-metre freestyle and bronze medal winner at the World Short Course Swimming Championship in Istanbul, Turkey, in December.

Among the women, Olympic games sixth-placed finisher in the 100m sprint final Kelly-Ann Baptiste leads the way ahead of WI women’s captain Merissa Aguilleira, Rheann Chung (table tennis), Krystle Esdelle (volleyball), Blair Wynne (hockey) and Kennya Cordner (football). The 25-year-old Baptiste, a former Louisiana State University student, ran 10.94 seconds in the Olympic final for a fifth sub-11 clocking on the season to up her career tally to 14.

She was voted also voted senior Female Athlete of the Year and senior Female Track Athlete of the Year at the NAAA’s function The list of 44 awards nominees, 26 men, 18 women, was selected by the Sports Foundation’s selection committee, headed by chairman Dr Keith Clifford and aided by sporting associations (through the nominations of athletes), who all worked through an exhaustive and thorough process in deciding on the various nominations. In addition, the Jeffrey Stollmeyer award for the best sporting administration and the Lystra Lewis award for the Team of the Year will also be presented on the night.

Nominees

Athletics: Keshorn Walcott (male); Kelly-Ann Baptiste (female)
Badminton: Rahul Rampersad (male); Virginia Chariandy Balwant (female)
Bodybuilding: Kelton Thomas (male); Trishanti Rocke (female)
Canoe/Kayak: David Hackshaw (male)
Chess: Ryan Harper (male); Javanna Smith (female)
Cricket: Sunil Narine (male); Merissa Aguilleira (female)
Cycling: Njisane Phillip (male)
Football: Khaleem Hyland (male); Kennya Cordner (female)
Golf: Talin Rajendranath (male)
Hockey: Darren Cowie (male); Blair Wynne (female)
Horseracing: Brian Boodramsingh (male)
Karate: Nicholas Acevero (male); Nickita Xavier (female)
Netball: Anastascia Wilson (female)
Paralympic: Carlos Greene (male)
Powerlifting: Adrian Barry Brown (male); Roxanne Lee (female)
Rally Club: Cristian Bourne (male)
Rugby: Wayne Kelly (male); Alesha Bruce (female)
Sailing: Andrew Lewis (male)
Shooting: Roger Daniel (male); Marsha Bullen-Jones (female)
Squash: Joshua Pinard (male); Charlotte Marie Knaggs (female)
Swimming: George Bovell III (male); Sharntelle McLean (female)
Table tennis: Dexter St Louis (male); Rheann Chung (female)
Taekwondo: Andrew Lee (male)
Target archery: George Vire (male); Neela Cezair (female)
Tennis: Yohansey Williams (male); Yolande Leacock (female)
Triathlon: Ancil Green (male)
Volleyball: Fabien Whitfield (male); Krystle Esdelle (female)

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