First Citizens Sports Foundation Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awards Nominees

The First Citizens Sports Foundation Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year will be celebrated on Friday at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s. Today, the Trinidad Guardian lists some of the country’s top athletes that have been nominated from their respective disciplines. 

Here are some of the nominees:

ATHLETICS
Keshorn Walcott
Keshorn Walcott wrote his name into the history books on the final day of the track and field competition at last year’s Olympic Games in London. While the members of T&T’s relay teams were focusing on bringing home the gauntlet in their events, history was being made in the final of the men’s javelin section. The 19-year-old usurped his more experienced rivals with a national record 84.58 metre throw to become the youngest ever gold medallist in this event, the first champion from the western hemisphere in 60 years and this country’s second-ever Olympic Games top-prize winner. It was truly a golden year for Walcott, who also won the javelin titles at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain, the Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships in San Salvador, El Salvador and the Carifta Games in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Kelly-Ann Baptiste
It was another season of sprint excellence for Kelly-Ann Baptiste, who on May 5 finished second at the JN Jamaica Invitational in Kingston behind the USA’s Carmelita Jeter with a time of 10.86 seconds. At the Olympic Games in London, England, she earned sixth place in the women’s 100 metres final with a time of 10.94. Baptiste also guided T&T to the final of the women’s 4x100 metres relay competition. The 27-year-old Tobagonian’s consistency was demonstrated again at the Athletissima, the renowned IAAF Diamond League event in Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 23 when she placed third in a time of 10.93 seconds, behind Jeter and Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (both 10.86). The best result of the season came on September 2 when she achieved victory at the ISTAF World Challenge in Berlin, Germany, for the second year in a row, with a time of 11.25 seconds.

CRICKET
                    
Sunil Narine: 
The 24-year-old spinner captured nine wickets at an average of 15.44 in helping the West Indies to win the ICC World Twenty20 championship in Sri Lanka, last October, and was also named Player of the Series at the end of West Indies’ 4-1 one-day international series triumph over New Zealand. During that affair, Narine took 13 wickets at an average of 11.23.
Narine, who was eventually named as the ICC’s Emerging Player of the Year, enjoyed seven scalps during the 2012 Caribbean T20 championship as T&T successfully defended its title.
                                        

Merissa Aguilleira:
She is the captain of the West Indies and T&T team. The wicketkeeper made four catches, had one stumping and blasted 72 runs in guiding her squad to a 2-1 one-day international series triumph over India during February and March of last year. In the game against Sri Lanka, in an ODI series that West Indies also won 2-1, she topped the West Indies batting averages at 51.50 after scoring 103 runs that included a knock of 62 in the first game, an 88-run triumph in Bridgetown. Aguilleira later helped West Indies to the semi-finals of the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 competition in Sri Lanka. As captain of the T&T women’s team, she also led by example at the inaugural Regional Women’s Twenty20 Tournament in Jamaica, where she enjoyed nine dismissals as her team finished second to the hosts.

FOOTBALL
Khaleem Hyland
Khaleem Hyland made a huge impact during his first season with Genk—following a transfer from Waregem—and he seriously burned the gas from the midfield as he helped his team to the championship play-offs and an eventual fifth place finish. He made a total of 27 appearances including four in the UEFA Champions League and 15 from February to May 2012. 
With regards to the current term, Hyland, 23, scored once during a 3-2 defeat at the hands of his former team, Waregem, and he made 22 appearances by last December 26 including four in the UEFA Europa League. Genk won its group ahead of Swiss outfit Basle, Videoton of Hungary and Portuguese powerhouse Sporting Lisbon to advance to the Round of 32.

Kennya Cordner
Kennya Cordner made a big impression for a national team looking ahead to the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. A series of games in Costa Rica last December was highlighted by a 4-0 thrashing of the host in San Jose. Cordner scored a hat-trick in that affair as her team made up for a 1-0 defeat to its rival a couple of days earlier.
Cordner was invaluable to her team Issaquah SC of the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) in the USA. She helped her Washington state-based squad to second place in the North-West Division and a spot in the play-offs. Cordner earned 14 points in total after scoring seven goals in her six appearances.             

BADMINTON
Rahul Rampersad
He has performed exceedingly well at international events, giving his best display at the Venezuela Open International during August to September period when he teamed up with Solangel Guzman to win the mixed doubles title. In November, he earned a bronze medal in the men’s doubles competition at the Suriname International. At the Caribbean Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Rampersad got to the second stages of both the men’s singles and mixed doubles sections.
He also captured the singles title at the TTBA National Championships and earned a silver medal in the men’s doubles, while partnering Justin Siu. Rampersad and Siu would go onto to win the inaugural TTBA open doubles tournament in September.                              

Virginia Chariandy-Balwant
The 51-year-old proved age is just a number when she teamed up with Solangel Guzman to earn a silver medal in the women’s doubles final at the Caribbean Championships in Santo Domingo in August, after finishing as runner-up. She would later go one better at the Venezuela Open International in Maracay, in September, by linking up with Guzman again to win the women’s doubles title. On the local circuit, specifically at the TTBA National Championships in August, and the Solo Open the previous month, both ended with women’s doubles titles for Chariandy-Balwant and Guzman.
                                                     

BODYBUILDING
Kelton Thomas
Kelton Thomas claimed the bronze medal in the men’s bantamweight division and finished fourth in the masters category at the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the TTBBF National Championships at the Cascadia Hotel in St Ann’s on September 8, Thomas captured the bantamweight title ahead of Sanjay Lutchman, Dennis Jagassar and Wazim Mohammed. In December, Thomas participated in the FX Reloaded competition at Gulf City Mall in Lowlands in his native Tobago and was adjudged Mr FX 2012, in addition to winning the lightweight division title and finishing as runner-up in the Champ of Champs contest.                

Trishanti Rocke
T&T’s own Trishanti Rocke won both the overall title in the women’s body fitness competition and the gold medal in the tall class at the CAC Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico 
This was a follow-up to her achievement at the TTBBF championships, a few weeks earlier, when she captured the body fitness open class crown.

CYCLING
Njisane Phillip
The 21-year-old produced some exciting performances at last summer’s Olympic Games in London, reaching the semi-finals of the sprint competition. The Siparia resident claimed fourth place behind gold medallist Great Britain’s Jason Kenny, runner-up Frenchman Gregory Bauge and the Australian Shane Perkins. He also went on to qualify for the finals of the keirin and earn an overall seventh place finish. Phillip’s qualifying ride to the Olympics included the Pan American Championships in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where he captured the sprint gold medal. At the US Grand Prix of Sprinting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, he won another sprint title and also established a new national and Pan American record of 9.775 seconds in the Flying 200.