Teneil Campbell, Michelle-Lee Ahye in hunt for women’s TTOC award

A FEW of TT's most elite women's athletes will be vying for the sportswoman of the year award when the 29th Annual TT Olympic Committee Awards is held at Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain on Friday at 6 pm.

Teniel Campbell, the TTOC sportswoman of the year for 2022, has continued to show her potential in road cycling. Campbell became the first woman from TT and the first black woman to complete the gruelling eight-stage Tour De France Femmes Avec Zwift, which features the most elite road cyclists in the world.

Over an eight-day period in France, cyclists cover an overall distance of 960K. Campbell, representing Australian professional cycling club Jayco Alula, placed 99th overall in a time of 26 hours, 42 minutes and 59 seconds out of 123 riders who completed all eight stages. Campbell, the youngest on her team at 26, was one of seven riders to represent Jayco Alula.

The winning time by The Netherlands/SD Worx cyclist Demi Vollering was 25 hours, 17 minutes and 35 seconds.

Campbell had a busy year. Among her other achievements was a sixth-place finish out of 28 participants in the Elite Pan American Road Cycling Championships women’s time trial event in Panama in April. At the same meet, she placed 28th out of 51 cyclists who participated in the women's road race.

Track and field athlete Michelle-Lee Ahye, 31, copped the Sportswoman of the Year prize in 2021 and is again a contender for the award.

Despite being in her thirties now, she is still the most elite women's sprinter in TT.

The highlight of 2023 for Ahye was at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile where she grabbed bronze in the women's 100-metre event in 11.53 seconds. Ahye's medal was TT's only medal of the games.

It was Ahye's second Pan Am medal after copping silver at the 2019 edition in Lima, Peru.

Swimmer Cherelle Thompson had a creditable year also. At the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador, Thompson took bronze in the women's 50m freestyle event.

Many awards would be distributed on Friday night including the Sportsman of the Year award, the Sports Personality of the Year, Junior Sportswoman of the Year, the Junior Sportsman of the year award and the Alexander B Chapman award. The Alexander B Chapman award is given to someone for their contribution to sport and Olympism.

This is the first year the awards will be held in person since 2019 because of the covid19 pandemic.