Quarter-miler Renny Quow and 400-metre hurdler Josanne Lucas made it a Tobago one-two on Tuesday, copping the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year titles respectively at the 16th Annual Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee Awards Ceremony at the Cascadia Hotel and Conference Centre, St Ann’s.
Lucas became the first woman from T&T to medal in a major World track and field event when she grabbed bronze in her pet event at the World Championships in Athletics in August in Berlin, Germany. At the same Games, Quow, who had also been steadily improving during the 2009 season, also bagged bronze in the one-lap event.
Lucas also twice surpassed the national record in the event during the Championships, where T&T’s more fancied stars failed to shine individually.
And Jehue Gordon, who at 17 twice set a new mark in the men’s 400-metre hurdle event, finishing seconds outside the bronze medal in his first major World Games, was named Junior Sportsman of the Year.
Swimmer Kimberlee John-Williams, who broke several national records and dominated the sport locally, was awarded the Junior Sportswoman of the Year accolade.
UWI Sport and Physical Education Centre director Iva Gloudon is the T&TOC’s IOC Woman in Sport nominee, while Joe Public and national striker Kerry Baptiste, who led his team to four Pro League titles and the FA Trophy, picked up the Sport Personality of the Year award.
The Alexander B Chapman award for ’outstanding contribution to sport and Olympism, particularly in the promotion of Olympic ideals,’ went to Trinidad and Tobago cricket captain Daren Ganga, who led T&T a second straight President’s Cup One-Day tournament title and to the final of the inaugural Airtel Champions League Twenty20 tournament.
During the function, bpTT chairman/CEO Robert Riley, the feature speaker on the night, spoke about the importance of sport in the region, saying it has the power to ’galvanise the people of the region’ better than any other single entity.
Riley used the example of West Indies cricket, and the unity it brought about in the region during its most successful period in the 1980s. He is convinced that success can be achieved once again.
’We got there by talent and chance, Riley said, ’but the opportunities to get there by chance are fast (disappearing).’
’There is no doubt to me that sport can be self-sustaining, but we have to think of it as a business, not (just) social interaction,’ he added while pledging his support to the T&TOC ’particularly in the way of education’.
T&TOC president Larry Romany also gave a stirring address on the ability of sport to put T&T on the map, and earn them the international recognition that would be all but impossible to achieve otherwise.
He cited the 1980’s West Indies, Brian Lara’s achievements, Ato Boldon, Hasely Crawford, George Bovell, Dwight Yorke, the 2006 ’Soca Warriors’ and even T&T’s cricketers at the Airtel tournament.
’No planned public relations effort,’ Romany pointed out, ’would be able to replicate this global awareness without spending millions of dollars, and even then, you are not sure...there’s no cost/benefit analysis that can be done on this.’
Romany also made a fervent plea for stakeholders such as parents of athletes, communities, leaders, and Government, to put their best foot forward and contribute towards T&T’s future sporting successes.
