NASSAU, Bahamas – Nominees for the 2015 Caribbean Sports Journalists’ Association (CASJA) Awards were revealed on Wednesday.
There are 44 nominees in six categories including Jamaican triple world record holder Usain Bolt and compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the double Olympian and triple world 100 metres champion.
The list of nominees comes from the Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Grenada, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and spans athletics, cricket, cycling, football, gymnastics, netball, sailing, swimming and volleyball.
Six categories are Sportsman of the Year; Sportswoman of the Year; Team of the Year (Male); Team of the Year (Female); Rising Star of the Year (Male) and Rising Star of the Year (Female).
Bolt leads the list of nominees for the Sportsman of the Year where he is up against Kirani James of Grenada (Athletics), O’Dayne Richards of Jamaica (Athletics) and Akeem Stewart (Para-Athletics), Machel Cedenio (Athletics) and George Bovell (Swimming) of Trinidad and Tobago.
Bolt retained his 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China in August.
Fraser-Pryce is one of 11 nominees for the Sportswoman of the Year award which also includes compatriots Stafanie Taylor(Cricket), Ali Atkinson (Swimming) and Danielle Williams (Athletics). The other nominees are Yarisley Silva and Denia Caballero (Athletics) of Cuba; Akela Jones (Athletics) of Barbados; Shaunae Miller (Athletics) of Bahamas and Track and field athletes Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Michelle Lee Ahye and Cleopatra Borel of Trinidad and Tobago.
Jamaica’s quartet of Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell, Nickel Ashmeade and Usain Bolt leads the nominations in the Male Team of the Year category. They set a world-leading time of 37.36 seconds to win the 4x100m gold at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing.
They are being challenged by the Trinidad and Tobago’s 4x400m relay team who won gold at the Pan American Games in Toronto and copped the silver in Beijing; Jamaica Senior Men’s National Football team (Reggae Boyz), the beaten finalist in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament in the United States and the national cricket and beach volleyball teams of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago respectively.
Teams representing athletics, cricket and football are also nominated in the Female Team of the Year category. The panel will have a star-studded field of nominees including the 4x100m relay team of Veronica Campbell-Brown, Natasha Morrison, Elaine Thompson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who won the gold in Beijing in a championship record 41.07 and Shericka Jackson, Christine Day, Stephenie Ann McPherson and Novlene Williams-Mills won the 4x400m relay gold in a world leading time of 3:19.13.
Also included are the team of Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Michelle Lee Ahye, Reyare Thomas and Semoy Hackett who copped the bronze in the 4x100m relay in a new national record of 42.03 and the Jamaica Netball team (Sunshine Girls) who finished fourth at the Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia.
The West Indies Women’s Cricket team which defeated the touring Pakistan Women 3-1 in the One Day Internationals and 3-0 in the Twenty20 International (T20I) Series and the Trinidad and Tobago National Senior and Under-20 Football teams are also nominated in the category.
There are nine nominees for the Male Rising Star and six in the Female Rising Star of the Year categories.
Maykel Masso (Athletics) of Cuba; Akeem Bloomfield (Athletics) of Jamaica; Jeffrey Gibson (Athletics) of the Bahamas; Kraigg Brathwaite (Cricket) of Barbados; Christian Marsden (Open Water Swimming) and Akil Campbell (Cycling) of Trinidad and Tobago; Christopher Taylor (Athletics) of Jamaica are joined by Cedenio and Richards, who were nominated for the Sportsman of the Year.
Rising Trinidad and Tobago track star, Khalifa St Fort; Williams (nominated for Sportswoman of the Year); Yulenmis Aguilar (Athletics) of Cuba; Shericka Jackson (Athletics) of Jamaica and Kelly-Ann Arrindell (Sailing) and Thema Williams (Gymnastics) of Trinidad and Tobago complete the nominees in the Female Rising Star of the Year category.
A regional panel of six comprising of sports journalists, commentators and administrators will determine the winners from the list chosen by sports journalists in the Caribbean.
They are Tonique Williams-Darling, Shaka Hislop, Vernon Springer, Terry Finisterre, Ato Boldon and Kayon Raynor.
The winners will be announced on Monday November 23, 2015 via CASJA’s social media platforms: Facebook: https://www.
Twitter: @CASJAsports
Hashtag #CASJAAwards
Previous Winners: 2014
Sportsman – Kirani James (Grenada)
Sportswoman – Kaliese Spencer (Jamaica)
Team of the Year (Male) – Jamaica’s 4x200m (Nickel Ashmeade, Warren Weir, Jermaine Brown,
Team of the Year (Female) – Trinidad & Tobago’s Soca Princesses (Football)
Rising Star of the Year (Male) – Wilhem Bolocian (Guadeloupe)
Rising Star of the Year (Female) – Akela Jones (Barbados)
