IT was indeed a gala event on Wednesday night as First Citizens Bank held its Annual Sportsman and Sportswoman awards at Queen’s Hall.
It was a privilege to be present and I must thank First Citizens senior communication officer Stephanie Boisselle for inviting me. Pistol shooter Roger Daniel won the award for the second consecutive year while sprinter Kelly Ann Baptiste copped the female category. I interviewed Daniel for my sports show on IBN Channel 8 and I can tell you the Couva resident’s smile was as broad as an eagle wingspan. I have been in contact with Kelly Ann’s mom, Hazel Taylor, from Plymouth, Tobago and conveyed my best wishes to her daughter, who is based in Florida.
There were 28 nominees in the male category and 21 in the female. Here are the profiles of the female and male winners and added profiles of two other outstanding nominees, Anisa Mohammed and Rondell Sorillo.
Kelly Ann Baptiste – Athletics.
Not to belittle her outstanding 2008 and 2010 seasons, but last year saw the Tobagonian earn a bronze medal in the women’s 100 metres at the IAAF World Championships, after finishing third in a time of 10.98 seconds behind the USA’s Carmelita Jeter (10.90) and Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica (10.97). She later helped Trinidad and Tobago to a fourth-place finish in the women’s 4 x 100 metres relay final (42.58).
The former Louisiana State University Tiger’s outstanding form came to a crescendo at the Areva Samsung meeting in Paris on July 8, when she won the women’s 100 metres race in a time of 10.91 seconds, ahead of Jamaicans Campbell-Brown (10.95) and Kerron Stewart (11.04). This was followed up by an 11.11 triumph in Lucerne, Switzerland on July 21 and an 11.15-second win at the ISTAF Athletics Meeting in Berlin, Germany on September 11.
Roger Daniel
Roger Daniel – Shooting
Single-minded focus and dedication are the characteristics that continue to fuel Roger Daniel’s amazing runs of success and he manages to find a way to simply pick up in 2011 where he left off the previous year.
The Trinidad and Tobago Regiment member captured the silver medal in the men’s 10 metres air pistol competition at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, after he captured a total of 676.1 points. Daniel also competed in the 50 metres pistol event, in which he placed eleventh. However, he did manage to win this particular discipline at the Central American and Pan American Invitational during August. A pair of gold medals was also earned in the 10 metres air pistol and 50 metres pistol in the Norwegian Hell Open International Air Gun Championships and Daniel’s accuracy was simply better than that of the rest at the ACOM Challenge in April, when he won the 10 metres air pistol.
Anisa Mohammed – Cricket
The highlight of the year was the West Indies conquest of the ICC World Cup Qualifier tournament in Bangladesh. Mohammed’s phenomenal figures of seven for 14 against Pakistan in the final at Mirpur helped her team to a 130-run triumph and earned her the Player of the Match award. In total, she claimed 15 wickets on the tournament at a shocking average of just 5.46 runs conceded per wicket and simply added to a world record haul of 37 ODI wickets for the year. In becoming the first West Indies women’s player to surpass the 50-wicket mark (with 72 as of January 2012), she also helped the West Indies to a 3-1 ODI series win over Pakistan.
Rondell Sorillo – Athletics
Rondell Sorillo
Even as he was setting a meet record at last August’s NAAA national championships, Rondell Sorrillo was also setting the scene for the best season of his career so far.
The La Brea native made his rivals look like they had pitch on their spikes as he clocked 20.16 seconds in the 200 metres final – the fastest time ever recorded over this distance in the history of this event. Sorrillo also recorded a personal best in the men’s 100 metres competition when he recorded a time of 10.17 seconds. This achievement came a few weeks after his second-place finish in the 200 metres at the Central American and Caribbean Championships in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, where he clocked 20.64.
Sorrillo’s outstanding form continued at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. There were five appearances by Trinidad and Tobago athletes in finals at this event – including that by Sorrillo in the 200 metres championship, in which he placed seventh in 20.34.
The remaining six top ten nominees were:
* Sheldon Bissessar – Automobile Sports
* Kwandwane Browne – Hockey
* Tamara Ribiero-Bailey – Bodybuilding
* Ravi Rampaul – Cricket
* Njisane Phillip – Cycling
* Monifa Sealey – Golf
On the cricket front, Arima’s ‘mystery bowler’ Sunil Narine was bought for a staggering US$700,000 by the Kolkata Knight Riders of the IPL (Indian Premier League) coming on the heels of TnT’s victory in the Caribbean T20 title and his amazing match figures of 13-39 in the opening four-day regional fixture against a bamboozled CCC (Combined Campuses and Colleges) last week in Barbados. How magical was this performance? Well, I spoke to skipper Denesh Ramdin on the phone this week, who joked (I think he was serious) that even the umpires were fooled by Narine’s concoction of deliveries.
Narine does not have a retainer contract with the WICB and it would be interesting what he does if he is called up for the Australian tour of the WI.
Photos of Roger Daniel and Sunil Narine – abas400@tstt.net.tt
