Shani­qua Bas­combe of Mar­aval Ro­man Catholic School School and Eli­jah John of Nel­son Street Boys Ro­man Catholic School, were named Sports­woman and Sports­man of the Year at the Port-of-Spain and En­vi­rons Ed­u­ca­tion Dis­trict-Sports Coun­cil 15th an­nu­al Sports Awards func­tion held at the VIP Room of the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, on Tues­day.

Bas­combe, 10, and eight-year-old John were the pride of Port-of-Spain when the an­nounce­ment was made by mas­ter of cer­e­monies In­skip Car­ring­ton.

Bas­combe was the na­tion's top Un­der-11 track and field ath­lete, hav­ing won vic­trix lu­do­rum at the Mi­lo Games, Ro­tary Games and the NAAA Ju­ve­nile Cham­pi­onships. She was al­so the U-11 cham­pi­on at the Na­tion­al Pri­ma­ry School Track and Field Cham­pi­onship in May.

John, who is now called "Pock­et Rock­et the sec­ond" was the out­stand­ing sprint­er for his school at the East Games. He blot­ted his copy-book at the Ro­tary Games be­ing beat­en in­to third but soon joined top track and field club Cougars and has not turned back since.

John ran away with the U-9 vic­tor lu­do­rum ti­tle at the Na­tion­al Games be­fore ce­ment­ing his po­si­tion as the top U-9 ath­lete in the NAAA by win­ning at the Ju­ve­nile Cham­pi­onships. John has shown that Nel­son Street can still pro­duced top sport­ing per­son­al­i­ty and is a cred­it to his com­mu­ni­ty.

Young Kelsie Nan­coo played a won­der­ful ren­di­tion of the na­tion­al an­them on the steel pan and af­ter that the die was cast. Re­cent­ly re­tired phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion teacher Gar­net Pierre brought the house down with his ren­di­tion of "The Great­est Love Of All".

Tues­day was the day when ath­letes, coach­es, teach­ers, par­ents and su­per­vi­sors were ho­n­oured for their con­tri­bu­tion and out­stand­ing per­for­mances this sea­son.

Some 200 chil­dren from 72 schools were present at the event which was chaired by re­tired Prin­ci­pal of Gaines Nor­mal AME, Car­ring­ton.

The track and field team brought the great­est joy to the dis­trict when they record­ed their fourth con­sec­u­tive vic­to­ry in the Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships. This means that Port-of-Spain has now won the na­tion­al ti­tle 21 times in the past 23 years–an out­stand­ing feat. A spe­cial award was pre­sent­ed to School Su­per­vi­sor III, Tal­i­ba Ay­o­dike, who is set to re­tire at the end of the year.

Al­so leav­ing the su­per­vi­so­ry po­si­tion in Port-of-Spain will be Pa­tri­cia Wal­dron- Adams. They were all salut­ed for their ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice.

Kelvin Nan­coo, chair­man of the Sports Coun­cil, thanked all the su­per­vi­sors for their com­mit­ment and hard work over the years.

"Their con­tri­bu­tion will not go un­no­ticed," he said.

Nan­coo urged the stu­dents, teach­ers, prin­ci­pals and su­per­vi­sors to work to­geth­er for the ben­e­fit of all ath­letes.

"We were down for a year or two and many peo­ple smiled but we have shown the re­solve of cham­pi­ons and we are back at the top. We must con­tin­ue to de­vel­op our chil­dren holis­ti­cal­ly. Our Prin­ci­pals, teach­ers and par­ents must cease stop­ping the na­tion's chil­dren from tak­ing part in Sport, Cul­ture and the arts. They must re­alise the dam­age that they are do­ing to our na­tion. We must leave a lega­cy of which we must be all proud," he said.

School Su­per­vi­sor III in the of­fice of Chief Ed­u­ca­tion Of­fi­cer Cheryl Ann Wilkin­son praised the dis­trict for the ex­cel­lence dis­played and en­cour­aged the stu­dents to fol­low in the foot­steps of the top ath­letes, who have come through the sys­tem from Port-of-Spain and rep­re­sent­ed T&T at the high­est lev­el.

"This is where it all be­gins, it be­gins in the Pri­ma­ry schools. She en­cour­aged all the dis­tricts to take a page from the Port-of-Spain and En­vi­rons Dis­trict and bring their dis­trict to the lev­el of the leader. She was full of praise for the Port of Spain and En­vi­rons coun­cil which she said chal­lenges all in the fra­ter­ni­ty to "mar­ry" ed­u­ca­tion and sport.

The "Coach of the Year" women's ti­tle was award­ed to Abe­y­ola Akowe. Clint Charles ran away with the men's ver­sion for his con­tri­bu­tion to sport in his com­mu­ni­ty, his school Low­er Mor­vant Gov­ern­ment and the coun­try at large.

The cov­et­ed tro­phies for the "Spir­it of Port-of-Spain" ti­tle for the stu­dent who best ex­em­pli­fied the ideals of Port-of-Spain–was won by Joan­na Rogers of Melville Memo­r­i­al School (Girl).

Rogers was giv­en the award for her sus­tained ef­fort in striv­ing for ex­cel­lence through­out the year. She earned the nod by be­ing the on­ly ath­lete who would go back and an­chor the U-15 Girls re­lay team. She an­chored her team to the gold medal at the Na­tion­al Games.

Stan­ley Ma­hase was ad­judged "Most Help­ful Prin­ci­pal" while Sher­ry Ann Ship­ley was named as "Most Help­ful Sec­re­tary".

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