SPORTS
Come on Beckles
BELLE BECKLES
The TRINIDAD and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) will honor the best TT athletes at the Committee’s 28th Annual Awards Ceremony at 6pm on Thursday. The race for the sportsman of the year award is competitive as cyclist Nicholas Paul, track athlete Jereem Richards and swimmer Dylan Carter all submit in 2022.
Awards can be viewed on the TTOC website www.teamtto.org, the TTOC YouTube channel and the TTOC Facebook page.
Paul, who made his Olympic debut last year in Tokyo, had a memorable 2022.
He was the outstanding TT performer at the Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, England from July 28 to August 8. Paul won three medals competing at the Lee Valley VeloPark in London.
He won gold in the keirin, took silver in the sprint and took bronze in the 1K time trial. Paul won the 2021 TTOC sportsman of the year award.
Richards also starred at the Commonwealth Games winning gold in the men’s 200m.
He broke his personal best and a meet record on his way to defending his men’s 200m title.
Richards, who previously had a personal best of 19.83 seconds, won the race in 19.80.
He obliterated the previous Commonwealth Games record of 19.97, held by Frankie Fredericks of Namibia since 1994. Richards was not far from breaking the national record of 19.77 held by Ato Boldon since 1997. Richards won another medal when he ran the anchor leg for the TT in the men’s 4x400m relay. The team included Dwight St Hillaire, Asa Guevara and Machel Cedenio.
Carter broke multiple records at the 2022 FINA Swimming World Cup, which ended in November with three legs.
At the end of three legs, Carter won the award for best male swimmer. Carter won three gold medals in each of the three World Cup games. He won gold in the 50m backstroke, 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle.
Less than two weeks ago, Carter took bronze in the 50m freestyle at the FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia. He scored 20.72.
Cyclist Teniel Campbell continued to show her quality and is a candidate to win the sportswoman of the year award.
Campbell, who made her Olympic debut in 2021, won gold at the 2022 Caribbean Elite Road Championships in the Dominican Republic in October.
At the Commonwealth Games, Campbell finished sixth in the women’s road race in a field of over 50 cyclists. In the time trial, she finished seventh in a field of over 30 athletes.
Experienced West Indies women’s cricketer Anisa Mohammed continues to perform at a high level. Mohamed gave in when the pressure was on. In the International Cricket Council Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, Mohammed grabbed the last wicket for the West Indies in an upset seven-run win over England in the preliminary stage of the tournament. West Indies were eliminated in the semi-finals.
Later in the year, Mohammed was vice-captain of the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) women’s team, which won the inaugural Massy Women’s Caribbean Premier League title in St Kitts. Mohammed grabbed the last wicket of the match to seal the title for TKR.
TT Women’s footballer Kennya Cordner impressed for her club side Fenerbache in the 2021/2022 Turkcell Women’s Football Super League in Turkey.
Cordner finished as the league’s top scorer with 34 goals in 25 games. Cordner scored four hat-tricks and two Beaver tricks in the contest.
Sprinter Michelle-Lee Ahye, who won the TTOC Athlete of the Year in 2021, did not have the most fruitful year. She failed to make the 100m finals at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and the Commonwealth Games.
Awards will also be given to young athletes.
