A SPECIAL award for the Most Outstanding Athlete of the Year was presented to young sprint sensation Kenisha Phillips, while Winston George fittingly copped Best Senior Male Athlete of 2015, and Compton Caesar and Avon Samuels, respectively, lifted the Best Youth Male and Female Athlete titles of 2015, when the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) held its annual awards ceremony last Friday at the Duke Lodge, Kingston. Other winners included Andrea Foster for Best Junior Female Athlete of the Year 2015, Linton Mentis for Best Junior Male Athlete of the Year and Euleen Josiah-Tanner for Best Senior Female Athlete of 2015. Coach of the Running Braves Athletics Club, Julian Edmonds, was conferred the Coach of the Year Award. The ceremony saw athletes being awarded on the basis of their athletics performances in 2015; each category had three nominations from which the winner was selected.
In the best senior male category, men’s 400m record holder, George, who is currently in the US on a training stint, topped a list of nominees that included South American 10K winner Cleveland Forde, and men’s javelin record holder Leslain Baird. For his part, Baird finished behind George for the runner-up position.
George, who recently set Guyana’s first 300m record, was unquestionably deserving of the award. The Olympian broke the men’s 400m twice in one year last year, when he first lowered the record to 45.57s in June, before outdoing himself later in August last year at the World Championships where he set the current record of 45.25s. The Olympian currently has his sights set on the 2016 Olympics set for Rio, Brazil, in August.
For the senior female athlete, Jossiah-Tanner came in ahead of Natrena Hooper, while Cindy Fraser was also nominated.
Matthew McKenzie finished as runner- up behind Compton in the Best Youth Male Athlete. Samuels won the Youth Female Athlete award ahead of Natricia Hooper and Cassey George.
Aniqua Powley was runner- up for the Best Junior Female Athlete behind Foster.