Tokyo Olympians top list for 27th TTOC awards

TOKYO Olympians Dylan Carter and Nicholas Paul are frontrunners for this year’s Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) sportsman of the year award.

Likewise, pro road cyclist Teniel Campbell and pro netballer Samantha Wallace also spearhead the list for the prestigious sportswoman of the year accolade.

The 27th annual awards ceremony gets underway on Wednesday, virtually from 6 pm.

Carter and Campbell are the TTOC’s reigning male and female individual athletes of the year for 2020 and, once again, keen contenders for the respective titles this time around.

The two-time Olympic swimmer had a good year, winning 23 medals at the International Swimming League (ISL) and then securing his second FINA World Championships medal – men’s 50-metre butterfly silver – nine days ago in the United Arab Emirates.

At the Tokyo Games, Carter competed in four events but was unable to reach the finals in any.

Similarly, Paul made his Olympic debut by placing sixth in the men’s sprint and 12th in the keirin while compatriot Kwesi Browne was 30th in the former and ninth in the latter.

The flying 200m world record holder (9.1 seconds) Paul then won triple-gold in the sprint, keirin and 1km time trial at the Nations Cup in Colombia, captured TT’s second-ever World Championships (France) medal – silver in 1km time trial – and pedalled to another silver at the Champions League in Lithuania.

Likewise, Campbell made her Olympic debut and became the first female cyclist from the Caribbean to compete in the road race.

Although she was unable to complete the challenging 137km distance, Campbell went on to earn silver at the Pan American Road Cycling Championships in the Dominican Republic weeks later.

She also made her fourth appearance at Road World Championships, won stage six of Tour de l’Ardeche (France) with her pro team Team BikeExchange, was seventh at the Drentse Acht van Weserveld (Netherlands) road race and sixth at the Dwars door Vlaanderen (Belgium).

Additionally, Wallace, who plies her trade with New South Wales Swifts, led her team to its second Suncorp Super Netball title (August) in three years. This year, she also won her third Swifts MVP title on the Australian pro circuit.

The TTOC’s people’s choice award features Paul, Campbell, Carter, Wallace, track and field athletes Michelle-Lee Ahye, Deon Lendore, Machel Cedenio, Jonathan Farinha and Tyriq Horsford, swimmers Cherelle Thompson and Graham Chatoor and sailor Andrew Lewis.

Other awards up-for-grabs are junior sportsman and sportswoman of the year, sports personality of the year, Future is Female and the Alexander B. Chapman awards.

This year’s theme is “The glass is not half empty”.

TTOC president Brian Lewis said, “I’m looking forward for it (awards). It’s always an eagerly anticipated event. With covid19 over the past two years, it had to be virtual but it has grown in the over 20 years of existence, to become a very prestigious event on the local sport and social calendar.

“People look forward to it and the announcements as to who would be the feature speaker. It’s very interesting and exciting. The fact that it brings the curtain down on the 75th year of the establishment of the TTOC; it’s a very special occasion.”

Lewis said TT President and TTOC patron Paula-Mae Weekes and Minister of Sport and Community Development Shamfa Cudjoe will bring remarks at the ceremony.

The TTOC will reveal its feature speaker on the night of the awards.