..Amsterdam, Nicolette Fernandes cop top Awards

By Sean Devers
BOXER Desmond Amsterdam and Squash player, Nicolette Fernandes, copped the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the year Awards respectively when the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport held the National Sports Awards ceremony at the National Cultural Centre (NCC) Sunday night.

Squash player, 19-year-old Shomari Wilshire took the junior Sportsman-of-the-year award while 16-year-old, 800 metres’ runner, Attoya Harvey was adjudged the Junior Sportswoman of the year.

The elevation of Guyanese Middleweight boxer, ‘Dynamite’ Desmond Amsterdam in 2022 culminated in him securing the Sportsman-of-year Award after being honoured by the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) with the award of ‘Boxer-of-Year.

The 30-year-old Amsterdam won Bronze at the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC) Elite Championships in Ecuador, before battling to a quarterfinal place at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

He then concluded his international campaign with another historic bronze medal capture, this time at the South American Games in Paraguay.

The GDF pugilist copped Gold at the Terrence Ali Open Championship, following the event’s two-year absence.

In August 2022, the 39-year Nicolette won the over-35 World Masters, becoming the only Guyanese to win a World Masters squash title.

In April 2022, Nicolette proved that age was just a number as the Canada-born turned back the clock to win gold for Guyana at the Pan American Squash Championships in Guatemala by beating number-one seeded player, 25-year-old Laura Tovar 3-0.

In 2010, Nicolette became Guyana’s first female to win both the women’s and men’s Squash titles.

Nicolette was named Sportswoman-of-the-Year for her outstanding performance in 2009. Fourteen years later she has again taken that accolade to become the oldest athlete to win the Sportswoman- of-the-year award in Guyana.

For the first time the Sport Ministry provided cash prizes for all of the winners in the various categories except the Corporate sponsors, who received Plaques only. .
Squash dominated the Awards, since apart from Nicolette’s achievement, Shomari Wilshere won the Junior Sportsman award; Kirsten Gomes was runner-up for the Junior Sportswoman while Guyana’s Junior Squash team which won their 13 Junior CASA title in Guyana in July, copped the Sports team-of-the-year award.

Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who made 439 runs at an average of 73.9 to finish second on run aggregate, behind Kraigg Braithwaite, in the 2022 Regional first-class tournament before scoring 160 runs at an average of 40 in the two Tests in Australia last year, was the runner-up to Amsterdam.

Bodybuilder Rosanna Fung was the runner-up to Nicolette for the Sports Woman-of-the-year.
Footballer Omari Glasgow was runner-up to Wilshire for the Junior Sportsman-of-the-year.

The sport person with disabilities-of-the-year went to Walter Grant-Stuart, who participated in cycling in the 2022 Paralympics Games while there were no nominees for Sports Woman in this category.

The Male Coach-of-the-year went to table tennis coach, Idi Lewis, who coached Chelsea Edghill in the Olympics while Female Coach-of-the-year went to former Berbice, Guyana and West Indies female fast bowling all-rounder and level 3 Coach, 37-year-old Tremaine Smartt.

The Guyana Boxing Association got Association-of-the-year Award after hosting eighteen junior and schoolboy’s tournaments and one International competition – the Winfield Braithwaite youth and Junior Championships.

The Terrence Ali National Open Championship, won by defending Champions GDF, culminated boxing for 2022. The overseas championships were the AMBC Continental Championships, the Commonwealth Games, South American Games and AMBC Continental youth Championships.

The Male Sports Official-of-the-Year went to Ryan Sampson from Rifle Shooting while the Female Sports Official-of-the-Year was won by Ann Gordon.

The Sports Journalists-of-the-Year were Avinash Ramzan (Non-Print), Duncan Saul (Print) and Akeem Greene (Broadcast) as Newsroom took two of the three categories.

The Corporate Sponsor Awards went to Ansa McAl (Large), Mohammed’s Enterprise (Medium) and MVP Sports (Small).

Former Badminton coach and President of the GBA, from 2006 until his passing, the late Gokarn Ramdhani was awarded for his long service to Badminton. Gokarn began playing for Guyana in the early 1980s and died in October 2021 in Canada at age 55, from a heart attack.

The Award was collected by his wife and now President of the GBA, Emily Ramdhani.

Alana Bose and Franklyn Wilson were the MCs for the Gala Ceremony which attracted a fair-size gathering which included Sports Minister Charles Ramson (Jr) and most members of the NSC. Several of the Awardees were absent for various reasons.

Before the commencement and after the conclusion, the participants were treated to steel band music and cocktails at the upper flat of the NCC.