WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPION Akela Jones and cricketer Kraigg Brathwaite have been nominated in the inaugural Caribbean Sports Journalists’ Association (CASJA) Sports Awards.
The Barbados Cricket Team and the Barbados Davis Cup tennis team have also been shortlisted in the team category.
Jones, who won the long jump at this year’s World Junior Championships in athletics, has been nominated the female section of the Rising Star of the Year category. She is joined by Trinidadian sprinter Michelle-Lee Ahye, cricketer Shanel Daley, and Cuban athletes Sahily Diago and Yorgelis Rodriguez.
Brathwaite is among several nominees in the male section. All of the others are from track and field and include – O’Dayne Richards (Jamaica), Deon Lendore (Trinidad and Tobago), Lazaro Martinez (Cuba), Wilhem Belocian (Guadeloupe), as well as Jamaicans Jaheel Hyde and the late Cavahn McKenzie.
Meanwhile, Grenada’s Kirani James and Jamaicans Nicholas Walters and Kaliese Spencer are among the favourites to win the award for Sportsperson of the Year.
James dominated the 400 metres in 2014 and lost only once to American LaShawn Merritt, had a world-leading time of 43.74 seconds and won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Walters is the WBA world featherweight champion, while Spencer claimed gold in the 400 metres hurdles at the Commonwealth Games and was also an IAAF Diamond League Trophy winner.
Also shortlisted among the men are Guyanese cricketer Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Jamaican Usain Bolt, despite his early close to the season. Jamaican swimmer Alia Atkinson, netballer Romelda Aiken and Cuba’s Yarisley Silva are the other female nominees.
Also in the teams category are Jamaica’s 4×200 metres men’s relay quartet which set a new world record at the IAAF World Relays in The Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda’s senior football team, while Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls netballers and Trinidad and Tobago’s Soca Princesses are in the female category.
A six-member panel will choose the winners.
They are Tonique Williams of The Bahamas, Ato Boldon and Shaka Hislop of Trinidad and Tobago, Vernon Springer of St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia’s Terry Finisterre and Kayon Raynor of Jamaica. (PR/SAT)
