New champs for First Citizens Youth Awards

A new pair of T&T’s top sporting youth will be honoured tonight when the First Citizens Sports Foundation hosts its annual Youth Awards at the Hyatt Regency, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, from 6.30 pm.

The T&T Golf Association (TTGA), which produced the female athlete of last year in Monifa Sealy, has nominated just one athlete for the coveted title: Matthew Marquez. 

The 2012 male athlete of the year, Quincy Alexander, has been replaced by Justin Roberts, who was recently called up to represent T&T at the Pan American Cycling Championships.

However, a female representative of the TTCA, Jodi Goodridge, who has been in top shape recently, is among the favourites to capture the female youth athlete of the year after an excellent spell of results. Goodridge, who only last year won a gold medal at the Pan American Youth Championship, became the first ever woman from T&T to qualify for an elite Pan American Cycling Championship, when she ducked under the qualifying standard in the flying 200m event this month, while breaking the women’s national record in the process.

Goodridge will face opposition for the award from some of T&T’s highly-rated girls in their respective events, Kimberlee-John Williams (swimming), Paralympic swimmer Shanntol Ince, Brittany Joseph (table tennis), Kristi Reno Singh (badminton), among several others.

National youth opening batsman Jeremy Solozano, who has had a tremendous season past in the Secondary Schools’ Cricket League (SSCL) and international cricket is among the favourites to take home the male youth athlete of the year. National U-17 skipper Brendon Creed, who plays a more reserved role in his discipline, football, is also in the mix, along with Stag Trinidad Northern, Fatima College and national U-19 rugby player Ross Navarro, golf standout Matthew Marquez, and record-breaking swimmer Dylan Carter. Arun Roopnarine, a top junior table tennis standout may have a shout for the title after punching above his weight as he aided his far more senior colleagues to the men’s teams title at the Caribbean Table Tennis Federation Championships, last August.

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