Sean Nero

The stage is set for the coun­try's biggest night of sport­ing ho­n­ours with the host­ing of the First Cit­i­zens Sports Foun­da­tion Sports­man and Sports­woman of the Year Awards 2014 at Queen's Hall, St Ann's, Port-of-Spain, tonight.

Based on the achieve­ments record­ed over the past year, it was clear many of the top con­tenders al­ready had the ho­n­our of be­ing in win­ners' row at var­i­ous events which paid trib­ute to the suc­cess of T&T's ath­letes.

Three-time Sports­woman of the Year Cleopa­tra Borel, two-time Sports­man of the Year Roger Daniel, Olympic gold medal­list Keshorn Wal­cott and Sports­man of the Year 2012, as well as Olympic bronze medal win­ner George Bovell, Sports­man of the Year 2004, are be­lieved to be favourites for top ho­n­ours.

Oth­er ath­letes be­ing tout­ed as top con­tenders in­clude: Kwe­si Browne (cy­cling) Michael Alexan­der (am­a­teur box­ing), Christo­pher George (Ju­do), Dex­ter St Louis (ta­ble ten­nis) and Rheann Chung (ta­ble ten­nis) and Dr Do­ri­an Alexan­der (taek­won­do).

They would be among 50 ath­letes (30 men and 20 women) across 31 dis­ci­plines in con­tention for these awards.

Alexan­der (taek­won­do), Browne, St Louis, George and Daniel earned bronze at the CAC Games in Ve­r­acruz, Mex­i­co.

Chung earned her bronze at the IT­TF Latin Amer­i­can Cham­pi­onships in San­to Domin­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic last April.

Borel, the in­ter­na­tion­al­ly re­spect­ed shot put­ter and Bovell copped gold at the cham­pi­onships.

At the Com­mon­wealth Games in Glas­gow, Scot­land, Borel and javelin ath­lete, Wal­cott, both won sil­ver. At that event, Wal­cott reg­is­tered a new na­tion­al record, too. Mean­while, Alexan­der, the am­a­teur box­er, earned bronze.

Daniel, the cel­e­brat­ed shoot­er, said be­ing nom­i­nat­ed meant, "I am a great ath­lete and I give thanks for be­ing recog­nised for all the hard work I put out dur­ing the year. Since the Lon­don 2012 Olympics, I have ma­tured in the sport tremen­dous­ly. I am more dri­ven to be suc­cess­ful. I have learnt to be very pa­tient with my self-de­vel­op­ment in the sport.

"I have grown as an ath­lete even more now be­cause I un­der­stood what it takes to be a world class ath­lete and my roles and func­tions if I am to be at the top in my sport."

To be an ef­fec­tive am­bas­sador for the sport, said Daniel, meant know­ing he was rep­re­sent­ing a na­tion and not him­self.

"You rep­re­sent the peo­ple of the na­tion and as such when you're out there on the cir­cuit com­pet­ing and you win, it gives you the great­est feel­ing. That is all the more rea­son why you have to con­duct your­self in a man­ner that is a cut above the rest as an am­bas­sador.

"My sport is not grow­ing, but there are oth­er as­pects or dis­ci­plines as­so­ci­at­ed with the sport that I would like to see get some more recog­ni­tion like archery or bring back the paint­ball or even more air shoot­ing events that can be al­lowed for all ages. There are such things, just that vi­sion is need­ed: away with neg­a­tives and open up to pos­i­tives," he said.

Daniel added: "I don't think it might be as pop­u­lar, but we can get it to a lev­el where peo­ple can en­joy and prac­tice it and if they de­cide to ven­ture fur­ther then we take them to the next lev­el."

The Nom­i­nees

AM­A­TEUR BOX­ING

Michael Alexan­der

AU­TO­MO­BILE SPORTS

Kris­t­ian Boodoos­ingh

BAD­MINTON

Al­is­tair Es­pinoza

Nekeisha Blake

BODY­BUILD­ING

Kel­ton Thomas

Vanes­sa Hill

CA­NOE­ING/KAYAK­ING

Satyam Ma­haraj

Keian Hug­gins

CHESS

Ryan Harp­er

Adi­ti Soon­dars­ingh

CRICK­ET

De­nesh Ramdin

Brit­ney Coop­er

CY­CLING

Kwe­si Browne

HOCK­EY

Akim Tou­s­saint

Alan­na Lewis

FOOT­BALL

Kevin Moli­no

Arin King

GOLF

Tal­in Ra­jen­dranath

Moni­fa Sealy

GYM­NAS­TICS

William Al­bert

Marisa Dick

HORSERAC­ING

Bri­an Boodram­s­ingh

JU­DO

Christo­pher George

KARATE

Zachary Alexan­der

Tama­ra Joseph

NET­BALL

Joelisa Coop­er

POWER­BOAT RAC­ING

Brent Branker

POW­ER­LIFT­ING

Adri­an Brown

Yolande McIn­tyre

RAL­LY

Craig Sumair

RUG­BY

Ag­boola Sil­ver­thorn

Nico­lette Pan­tor

SAIL­ING

An­drew Lewis

Kel­ly-Ann Ar­rindell

SHOOT­ING

Roger Daniel

SQUASH

Col­in Ra­mas­ra

SWIM­MING

George Bovell III

Kristin Julien

TA­BLE TEN­NIS

Dex­ter St Louis

Rheann Chung

TAEK­WON­DO

Do­ri­an Alexan­der

TAR­GET ARCHERY

Has­math Ali

Neela Cezair

TEN­NIS

Yohansey Williams

Olivia Ben­nett

TRACK AND FIELD

Keshorn Wal­cott

Cleopa­tra Borel

TRIATHLON

An­cil Greene

VOL­LEY­BALL

Si­mon Blake

Chan­non Thomp­son