Jizelle Sa­landy was the lone re­cip­i­ent of this coun­try's high­est award in the 2009 In­de­pen­dence Day ho­n­ours, presided over last night by Pres­i­dent George Richards. Sa­landy was award­ed the Or­der of Trinidad and To­ba­go for dis­tin­guished and out­stand­ing na­tion­al ser­vice in the field of box­ing. The award was pre­sent­ed posthu­mous­ly. Sa­landy died at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal on Jan­u­ary 4, af­ter the car she was dri­ving crashed in­to a con­crete pil­lar near the Na­tion­al Pe­tro­le­um over­pass on Beetham High­way. She was 21 years old. This coun­try's most suc­cess­ful fe­male box­er, Sa­landy had eight world ti­tles un­der her belt, in­clud­ing the World Box­ing Coun­cil (WBC), the World Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (WBA) and the Women's In­ter­na­tion­al Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (WI­BA) ti­tles.

She was the re­cip­i­ent of the coun­try's sec­ond high­est award–the Cha­co­nia Medal (Gold) in Au­gust 2007. Af­ter her death, Sports and Youth Af­fairs Min­is­ter Gary Hunt de­scribed Sa­landy as an icon, a great con­trib­u­tor and a mo­ti­va­tor. Among the oth­er 20 re­cip­i­ents of na­tion­al awards this year were Dr Geral­dine Con­nor, eth­no­mu­si­col­o­gist, Am­bas­sador Dr Cuth­bert Joseph and fash­ion de­sign­er Heather Jones. They re­ceived the Cha­co­nia Medal (Gold). The Cha­co­nia Medal (Sil­ver) was award­ed to med­ical doc­tors George Laquis and Ronald Hen­ry, in the field of med­i­cine, Fr Steve West (ed­u­ca­tion), and com­mu­ni­ty work­er Gowriedath Hanooman (posthu­mous­ly) for gal­lantry.

Re­cip­i­ents of the Hum­ming Bird Medal (Gold) were busi­ness­man Nar­ine Gupte Lutch­me­di­al for com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice, pan­nist Len "Boogsie" Sharpe for cul­ture and Di­anne Aval­one Bap­tiste, a house­wife, for gal­lantry. In an act of brav­ery, Bap­tiste, a 41-year-old Williamsville res­i­dent, dis­armed a ban­dit, struck him with a flower pot and kept him in an arm­lock un­til the po­lice ar­rived.

Hum­ming Bird Medal (Sil­ver):

�2 Bis­soon Birs­ingh for com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice (posthu­mous­ly);

�2 The Flo­res fam­i­ly for cul­ture;

�2 Hugh Joseph Cyrus for gal­lantry;

�2 Kei­th Smith for jour­nal­ism;

�2 Gertrude Ann Browne-John for sport; and

�2 Alvin Corneal for sport.

Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it (Gold) is be­ing pre­sent­ed to re­tired nurse Cyn­thia Vi­o­la Forde.

Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal (Sil­ver) is be­ing award­ed to pres­i­dent of the T&T Reg­is­tered Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion Va­lerie Al­leyne-Rawl­ins.

Pub­lic Ser­vice Med­ical (Bronze).

The awards were pre­sent­ed at a cer­e­mo­ny at Pres­i­dent's House last night.