Scott, Burns cop Olympic awards

CANDICE SCOTT and Marc Burns captured the Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year accolades respectively as the 2005 Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) staged their annual award ceremony. The gala event was held at the Ballroom, Cascadia Hotel, St Ann’s on Thursday evening. For Scott, this is the third successive year that she earned such a title, as she proves to be a standard-bearer in the track and field discipline of hammer throw. And Burns, the national sprint king, placed seventh in the 100-metre final at the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland in July. Leading football administrator Jack Austin Warner was adjudged the TTOC Sports Personality of the Year “for an outstanding individual engaged in an Olympic discipline during the year.”

Warner’s role as special advisor of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF), as well as president of CONCACAF and CFU, did not go unnoticed as he has proved to be a driving force in the growth of the sport regionally. Warner, who also serves as vice-president of the game’s governing body FIFA, also provided the majority of funding for the national team during their historic qualification for the World Cup in Germany. There was also the Alexander B Chapman Award “for an outstanding contribution to sport and Olympism, particularly in the promotion of Olympic ideals”. Like Warner, another businessman copped the title as veteran powerboat racer Ken Charles was given the nod by the TTOC executive, who made the final decisions on the awardees. Charles’ name has been synonymous with Mr Solo (now Mr Solo Too), the most successful boat in the history of the annual Trinidad to Tobago Great Race.

And the TTOC Sport and Education Award, “for excellence in academic and sporting pursuits at the secondary education level,” went to quartermiler Ade Alleyne-Forte. Forte was among nine entrants in the category, who were judged both by their feats on the sporting arena and an essay written on the topic “Identifying the co-relations between the National Sports Policy and the policy of Olympicism.” TTOC president Michael Larry Romany delivered a rivetting feature address where he touched on a number of societal ills, especially the issue on crime. He spoke at length about the value of sport to the society and the need for the politicians, as well as the nation’s sporting personalities, to become leading role models in the country. Romany also pledged that funding from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can be used by the TTOC to develop sports locally.

There were two other presentations made during the 90-minute ceremony. The 4x100-metre relay team comprising Jacey Harper, Burns, Ato Boldon and Darrel Brown received their silver medals from the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The quartet finished third in the race but, with the recent two-year suspension of American sprinter Tim Montgomery, the US team (who won the race) were stripped of their gold medals. The 32-year-old Boldon was also presented with a plague in recognition of his achievements in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he collected a tally of one silver and three medals in successive 100 and 200 metre finals. Boldon was absent from the ceremony with his father Guy receiving the award on his behalf.