Clay­ton Clarke

Olympic men's javelin cham­pi­on Keshorn Wal­cott had a busy week­end col­lect­ing awards, as he was named the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee's (TTOC) Ju­nior and Se­nior Sports­man of the Year at the Com­mit­tee's 18th an­nu­al award cer­e­mo­ny at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA), in Port-of-Spain on Sat­ur­day.

The awards fol­lowed sim­i­lar ac­co­lades one night ear­li­er at the Spir­it of Sport gala event where he won four ti­tles, in­clud­ing Ath­lete of the Year, Per­for­mance of the Year, Break­through Ath­lete of the Year and Con­sis­tent Per­former of the Year.

Wal­cott be­came the first ath­lete to walk away with both ju­nior and se­nior awards in the same year at the TTOC cer­e­mo­ny, af­ter his Olympic tri­umph at the Lon­don Olympics on Au­gust 11 where he stunned the world by win­ning the gold medal with a na­tion­al record throw of 84.58m. e col­lect­ed his Ju­nior Sports­man tro­phy from Nor­man Christie, re­gion­al pres­i­dent of BPTT, be­fore re­turn­ing to col­lect the se­nior equiv­a­lent from Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tim Goopeesingh.

Wal­cott de­scribed the achieve­ment as ter­rif­ic. "This year was tremen­dous from the be­gin­ning and end­ed by re­ceiv­ing this award. It was a great year and I am thank­ful for every­thing." The mod­est young­ster was grate­ful and jok­ing­ly said he is be­ing spoiled with an­oth­er award. "I am re­al­ly ho­n­oured. It just ends off the year in a big way so I am thank­ful. You all are spoil­ing me. All are spe­cial but I did not know at the TTOC awards I was nom­i­nat­ed for both ju­nior and se­nior cat­e­gories. I am thank­ful for re­ceiv­ing the awards."

An­oth­er spe­cial award await­ed the 19-year-old To­co throw­er when TTOC pres­i­dent Lar­ry Ro­many pre­sent­ed him with the javelin he used in win­ning his Olympic ti­tle. In pre­sent­ing the im­ple­ment, Ro­many said this year was spe­cial as the na­tion­al an­them was played at the Olympic Games, thanks to Wal­cott's achieve­ment. "It was al­ways my dream to hear our an­them at the Olympics and I got my wish. It was a very emo­tion­al mo­ment and meant a lot to the TTOC. Keshorn has been giv­en so many ac­co­lades since he came back with his gold medal. We could not give him one mil­lion dol­lars or a house. We tried to give him some­thing that would mean some­thing to him, as much as his win meant to us."

In re­sponse Wal­cott said he was touched. "I am thank­ful for re­ceiv­ing the javelin. It was a big sur­prise. We spoke about (get­ting the javelin) a week af­ter I came back (from Lon­don). I did not think any­thing came out of it. See­ing it here tonight was a touch­ing mo­ment. I am thank­ful. It moved me."

Kel­ly Ann Bap­tiste was named the Sports­woman of the Year for the sec­ond straight year, af­ter she be­came the first lo­cal woman to qual­i­fy for an Olympic fi­nals fin­ish­ing sixth in 10.94. Bap­tiste pre­vi­ous­ly cap­tured the award in 2008 and 2011. Bap­tiste was ab­sent. Her moth­er Hazel Ja­cobs Tay­lor col­lect­ed the prize on her be­half from Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Cy­clist Jodie Goodridge was named Ju­nior Sports­woman of the Year, fol­low­ing her his­toric bronze medal per­for­mance in the 500m time tri­als at the 2012 Ju­nior Pan Amer­i­can Cy­cling Cham­pi­onships in Guatemala in April. Goodridge be­came the first lo­cal woman to win an in­ter­na­tion­al cy­cling medal and said she was ho­n­oured to re­ceive the award and was thank­ful to the Olympic Com­mit­tee.

Wal­cott's coach Ish­mael Lopez-Mas­trapha was named Sports Per­son­al­i­ty of the Year. Mas­trapha's wife Michelle Stoute Lopez-Mus­trapha ac­cept­ed the award from In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor El­ton Prescott.

Har­vards Sports Club re­ceived the Alexan­der B Chap­man Award. Har­vard's pres­i­dent re­tired Brigadier Carl Al­fon­so ac­cept­ed the award from Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards.

AWARDEES

Ju­nior Sports­woman-Jodie Goodridge (Cy­cling)

Ju­nior Sports­man-Keshorn Wal­cott (Track and Field)

Sports­woman-Kel­ly Ann Bap­tiste (Track and Field)

Sports­man-Keshorn Wal­cott

(Track and Field)

Sports Per­son­al­i­ty-Ish­mael Lopez-Mus­trapha

Alexan­der B Chap­man Award-Har­vard Sports Club.