On February 25, Guyana’s chosen sports personalities will all be rewarded by the National Sports Commission (NSC) for their outstanding accomplishments during the year 2010 when the National Sports Award ceremony is held at the National Cultural Centre. Bodybuilder and Mr Universe Masters champion Hugh Ross was named Sportsman-of-the-Year while Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) Bantamweight champion Shondell Alfred picked up the female award.
Local sprint ace Chavez Ageday and table tennis star Chelsea Edghill are the Junior Sportsman and Sportswoman-of-the-Year respectively.
Runner-up for the male Sportsman-of-the-Year went to Guyana and West Indies ‘A’ leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo while on the distaff side, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Aliann Pompey landed the runner-up spot behind Alfred.
Another cricketer, Amir Khan, was adjudged the runner-up behind Ageday with Ashley Khalil taking the runner-up spot in the junior female category.
After carefully examining the awardees as compared to the nominees, it leads me too say the prestige panel, which included of Director of Sport Neil Kumar, NSC Chairman Conrad Plummer, veteran Columnist Dr Ian McDonald and retired Chancellor of the Judiciary Cecil Kennard, needed to reward Guyana’s sportsmen and women based on their merit, rather than sympathy for their effort.
In the Sportsman-of-the-Year award, hands-down Ross is indeed worthy of the award, which to me is not only because he became the first Guyanese and Caribbean Athlete to lift the Mr Universe Masters trophy, but because of his consistency in the sport ever since he started in 2002.
Even prior to bodybuilding Ross should have been in the loop for the award based on his outstanding records in the area of powerlifting, setting several national records in the USA.
But was Bishoo fit to be capped as the runner-up Sportsman-of-the-year?
If you ask me, I’ll say no, and while I cannot and wouldn’t speak for others, I’m sure they are overwhelming numbers who would agree.
It was said that because Bishoo took 44 wickets in three tournaments, and claimed the wicket of batting star Sachin Tendulkar, he was given the award … really?
Bishoo came up against the likes of powerlifter Randolph Morgan, distance athlete Cleveland Forde, swimmer Niall Roberts, driver Kevin Jeffrey and the Guyana Scrabble Association’s Frederick Collins.
Ok, so I’ll eliminate Jeffrey, Collins and Forde to an extent, but how can you not recognise Morgan for his record-breaking performances last year?
He (Morgan) is ranked at number 21 in the world by the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) after winning his second North American regional championship, Caribbean Island Gold medallist, Pan American gold medallist, Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games best lifter and overall winner in the 2010 CAC 82.5 kg Class where he took the gold medal.
If that’s not enough, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) employee is the first Guyanese and South American athlete to capture Best Lifter in the Men’s Open overall awards at more than one international championship in a given calendar year.
He’s also the holder of several national records and is the 2009/10 Guyana Police Force Sportsman-of-the-Year winner.
Compare that to 44 wickets in three tournaments including that of Tendulkar, and tell me who deserves the runner-up spot more?
The information I’ve furnished was also presented to the panel even before the voting on February 4, so was Bishoo really rewarded on ‘merit’ or ‘sympathy’?
The Guyana National Female Football team was named the Sports Team-of-the-Year stopping other  contenders for the award like the Guyana Men’s 7s rugby team, senior cricket team and the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC) team.
The Lady Jags first came together in 2009 and had qualified for the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup which was played in Mexico.
They came up against the hosts where they lost 7-2, went under to Canada eight-nil before falling to Trinidad and Tobago 4-1 in their final match.
Prior to the Gold Cup which also serves as the FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifiers, they enjoyed a fruitful run competing regionally only losing twice in seven matches.
But our rugby team had retained their North American Rugby Association (NARCA) Caribbean Title for the fifth successive year, only losing one preliminary match over the same period and capped their performance of the year by winning Guyana’s lone gold medal to date at the CAC Games and their first in a team competition.
It was the first time also that a 7s Rugby tournament was played under the Olympic umbrella since the sport was included by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) the previous year (2009).
The side also featured in last year’s 7s Rugby World Series in Las Vegas and even though they went down in all of their matches, they held the world’s attention when they drew 12-12 with France in a game which they almost won.
It doesn’t stop there; for they qualified for the 2011 Pan Am Games in Mexico and later represented Guyana at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India.
So did the ‘Lady Jags’ really deserve the award or was it given to them on compassion because it was a first-time outing?
I would answer that question myself and say sympathy prevailed on behalf of the Lady Jags, since the 7s Rugby team’s achievements certainly outweighed that the female football team.
Coach of the Year went to boxing coach Siebert Blake.
Now I couldn’t recall what outstanding he’s done for last year and not even the famous Google search could have helped me.
How could you vote for Blake who is only known for his handling of Alfred when there were other coaches like national football coach Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover who is also the coach of Guyana’s top football club Alpha United?.
Also in the mix was Theodore Henry, a level one IRB coach who has worked with and prepared Guyana’s 7s Rugby team for the past years and their success so far in my mind in team sport is unmatched and then there was Squash coach Carl Ince.
Even The Lady Jags coach Mark Rodrigues, who was only last week named Coach-of-the-Year by the GFF, was also listed as a nominee.
Another jaw-dropper was that they didn’t award a Journalist-of-the-Year in the ‘print category’ since according to a member of the voting panel, two of the nominees Franklyn Wilson and Rawle Welch were deadlocked on votes, so an Honourable Mention was given.
This I found more than hilarious because other than the newspapers, Guyanese here and abroad would not have been reliably informed because there’s no other proper and efficient medium to rely on.
NCN’s Jermaine Carter copped the Non-print award but I wouldn’t ask if that was on merit since I know for a fact that it’s on sympathy, as Capital News’ Esaun Griffith is more efficient in sports coverage and that broadcast does not have a designated sports segment.
The National Sports Awards event to me is becoming more and more mediocre as the years go by and more and more athletes and associations are becoming unwilling to place nomination since there seems to surface a sense of favouritism.
Without being disrespectful to anyone, the members of the panel are all learned individuals with a wealth of experience and knowledge of sports and as such, I think greater consideration should be taken when selecting the nominees and even awardees. A point to note – I’m aware of the process taken this year.