First Citizens Awards next Tuesday

This year there are 44 nominees in 33 disclipines. In attendance will be President of the Republic Professor George Maxwell Richards and his wife Dr Jean Ramjohn-Richards.

Delivering the feature address will be Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Roger Boynes. Following are profiles of the leading contenders for the First Citizens Awards.

BADMINTON

Kerwyn Pantin completed the triple at the National Championships in Port-of-Spain by sweeping the men’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles.

The 22-year-old later won both the singles and doubles titles at the Solo Open Championships in Chaguanas defeating Darron Charles 21-18, 21-18 and then teamed up with Charles to beat Sarajudeen Mohammed Cedric Uqhart 21-14, 21-9. Pantin also captured the singles title at the TTBA Open Championship.

The Sangre Grande resident also made history when both he and Anil Seepaul became the first players from the Caribbean to qualify for the World Championships. Competing in the doubles, in Anaheim, California, USA, Pantin and Seepaul were beaten by the No 3 ranked Indonesian pair of Flandi Limpele and Eng Hian 15-2, 15-3. Pantin reached the round of 16 at the CAREBACO Championships in Havana, Cuba and also participated at the Pan American Championships in Bridgetown, Barbados, where he and Seepaul reached the doubles quarter-finals.

Kerian Quan Chee, a 17-year-old made a huge impression on both the regional and local junior circuits during 2005. She earned four bronze medals at the CAREBACO Championships in Havana, Cuba and got to the semi-finals of the Under-19 girls singles competition, the girls doubles (with Nakeisha Blake), the mixed doubles (with Ernesto Dean) and the team competition.

Quan Chee was also in sizzling form in local tournaments, winning the Under-19 triple crown at the National Junior Championships where she defeated Blake in the singles final and won the singles title in two senior tournaments.

The St Augustine Girls’ High School student won both the doubles and mixed doubles titles in all of the junior competitions in which she entered and finished as runner-up in the Girls Under-19 division at both the Solo Easter Junior Championships and the Solo Summer Games.

BASKETBALL

Kenneth Roberts is 27 years of age and is currently a member of the Detour Shaq Attack Basketball Club.

He has been playing in the position Point Guard for the past three years. Prior to this, Roberts played for the National Flour Mills and had an extraordinary season for the year 2005. He was instrumental in his club’s success at the North Zone Championships in which they placed second. They also captured the Club Championship.

Kenneth was named the MVP in the National Basketball Federation of Trinidad and Tobago Sports World Championships and looks set to gain his first national cap. Surely, there is a bright future ahead for him.

Rhonda John-Davis was named as the Most Valuable Player during the women’s 2005 National Basketball Championship competition. John-Davis, who also received the award as the competition’s best forward, averaging over 20 points per game in leading her team, Defence Force, to their first ever national championship title.

An example of her value for Defence Force during the round-robin preliminary competition occurred on November 4 in a match against Courts Horizon: John-Davis poured in 30 points, including the game-winner, in a 69-67 triumph.

Defence Force would go on to defeat Horizon 2-0 in the national championship series finals.

John-Davis was also outstanding for Defence Force in the women’s competition of the North Zone Basketball League, where her team finished as runner-up to Horizon.

BODY BUILDING

Christopher White seemed almost untouchable during 2005. In October he won the light-heavyweight title and finished second overall amongst all male competitors during the 33rd Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Bodybuilding Championships in Oranjestad, Aruba. Prior to that, in July, he achieved first place overall at the Eastern Caribbean Championships in Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines.

In this event, White won the heavyweight title ahead of Garvin Phillips (St Vincent and the Grenadines) and Adrian Babb (Barbados).

Thirty-five year old White, a member of the La Joya Gym in St Joseph, also marked the past year with the achievement in winning both the junior and senior Mr Trinidad and Tobago titles.

BOXING

Kirt Sinnette is a former Pan American, Commonwealth and CAC Games medallist who has parlayed a successful amateur career into a, so far, very promising professional stint.

The highlight came on January 21, 2005 in what was only his sixth top level contest. Taking on Ricardo Inniss in Princes Town, Sinnette knocked out his opponent in two rounds to win the vacant Trinidad and Tobago super-middleweight title.

Thanks to subsequent victories over Julian Tannis (KO 2) in Port-of-Spain, Deon Gilkes (decision) in Fyzabad and Delroy Henderson (TKO 2) at Camp Ogden in St James, Sinnette ended the year with a record of 9-0 with six knockouts.

In November, the 31-year-old Morvant resident was ranked number one in the super-middleweight division by Fedecaribe, behind Barbadian champion, Marcus Thomas.

Ria Ramnarine, 27, made history on May 28, when she became Trinidad and Tobago’s first Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) world champion.

Squaring off against the USA’s Yvonne Caples in the mini-flyweight title fight at the Jean Pierre Complex in Port-of-Spain, Ramnarine suffered a second round knockdown.

However, the native of Orange Field Village in central Trinidad got up to produce a game performance for the remaining eight rounds and was awarded a split-decision victory over her opponent.

Ramnarine, winner of the WIBA Ibero-American mini-flyweight title the previous year, was subsequently awarded the Hummingbird Silver Medal during the Independence Day awards ceremony, in recognition of her world title victory over Caples.

Ramnarine has also participated in other contact sports — kickboxing, karate, ju-jitsu and Muay Thai — and is a member of the Fine Line Fight Club, which is based in the Chaguanas district of Montrose.

CHESS

Ryan Harper had a remarkable year in both the local and international chess tournaments.

The 28-year-old FIDE Master captured all three of the major titles available on the Trinidad and Tobago circuit. He won the national men’s title for the second time in his career, edging out Yogrendranath Ramsingh in the final round and, in the process, dethroning 13-time Trinidad and Tobago champion, Christo Cave.

Harper also recorded victories in the National Blitz Championship and the Trinidad and Tobago Swiss Open Tournament.

At the Hastings International Chess Congress in England, the former Queen’s Royal College won six of his matches in the ten-round competition. The following May, Harper took part in the CCA-ICC International in Lake George, New York, where he placed 13th overall with a total of five points from four wins. Harper then participated in the HB Global Challenge in Minneapolis, Minnesota — the world’s biggest open chess competition — and the Woodbrook native finished 138th with four victories, 4.5 points and an FIDE rating of 2270

Jane Kennedy, 16, had spent over eight years away from competitive chess before returning to the fold in 2005.

But there was certainly no evidence of a long lay-off at the World Youth Chess Championships in Belfort, France, where she recorded 4.5 points in finishing 76th in the eleven round girls Under-16 competition and earning a rating of 1947 — the highest ever achieved by a Trinidad and Tobago junior player. Kennedy also proved herself during the Trinidad and Tobago Women’s National Championship competition, where she eventually finished in joint-second place with Aditi Soondarsingh, behind the 2005 champion, Chantal Fitzpatrick.

Kennedy, however, was the best female performer during two local tournaments — the Paladius Open (4/7 points) and the Trustic/Sumpkin Open (3.5/7 points).