Muscleman Charles in FCB fray

TRINIDAD and Tobago’s top bodybuilder Dareem Charles is among the nominees for this year’s FCB Sports personality of the year Awards. The function is slated for March 21 at Queen’s Hall, Port-of-Spain when the biggest achievers in sports for last year will be honoured. Apart from Charles, others tipped to take the top prize are boxer Kertson Manswell, and basketballer Chezelle Griffith who are among those featured today.

BADMINTON—
RAHUL RAMPERSAD, 18, enjoyed a tremendous breakthrough year in 2004. At the Solo Easter Junior Championship in April he captured both the boys singles and doubles titles; defeating Justin Siu in the final of the former competition and teaming up with Mitra Ramcharan to defeat Siu and Earnesto Dean in the deciding match of the latter. It turned out to be the same results at the national juniors, the following month, with Siu again being defeated in the singles competition final and Siu and Dean going under to Rampersad and Ramcharan in the doubles final.

Rampersad also finished runner-up in all three finals (singles, doubles and mixed doubles) at the senior Solo Championships in March. The Couva resident successfully parlayed his form onto the international arena when he and Siu earned the bronze medal in the men’s doubles at the CAREBACO Championships in Chaguanas in November. This came four months after Rampersad reached the Under-19 singles and mixed doubles quarter-finals at the Pan American Junior Championships in Lima, Peru. Rampersad ended the year ranked at 415th by International Badminton Federation.

BASKETBALL—
CHEZELLE GRIFFITH, a former centre at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, was outstanding at both the local and international levels of basketball. Her all-round performances for Courts Horizon in the women’s first division of the North Zone Basketball League —  namely her scoring and rebounding —  helped her team to the championship title.

At the CARICOM Basketball Championships in Cuba in June, Griffith’s outstanding performance helped Trinidad and Tobago to fifth-place in the women’s competition. After losing all three first-round match-ups to eventual champion Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, Griffith’s team finished strongly recording a 77-52 classification victory over the US Virgin Islands and earning a 70-49 triumph over the Bahamas in the match for fifth and sixth places.

BODY BUILDING—
DAREEM CHARLES is perhaps the most well-known and established figure in Trinidad and Tobago bodybuilding. But 2004 was a particularly satisfactory year for the 35-year old. On May 1 he won the Florida Pro Extreme Challenge in Orlando with a total of 25 points and followed that up with victory at the Toronto Pro Invitational on June 12 with 27 points.

Charles also earned runner-up positions at the Hungarian Pro Invitational, the Night of Champions (behind Melvin Anthony of the USA) and the GNC Show of Strength in Atlanta, Georgia in September. In his biggest contest of the year, the renowned Mr. Olympia in Las Vegas on October 30, the four-time IFB”B” Pro champion placed a very commendable tenth overall, collecting a reward of US$10,000 in the competition won by American Ronnie Coleman ($120,000).

SHERMAINE ST BERNARD’S rise through the women’s bodybuilding ranks has been little short of meteoric. Just one year after the 30-year old fitness instructor decided to take up competitive bodybuilding, St. Bernard recorded an impressive triumph in the heavyweight (+57 kg) division at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships in Georgetown, Guyana on October 2.  St Bernard finished ahead of Jena Mackey (Bahamas) and defending champion Yusmary Sosa (Venezuela). St. Bernard was also triumphant in the heavyweight division at the National Junior Bodybuilding Championships, where she was subsequently awarded the overall Ms. Junior Trinidad and Tobago title.

BOXING—
KERTSON MANSWELL—
When the time came to say goodbye to the amateur ranks, Kertson Manswell chose to do so emphatically. Any doubt that Manswell was the region’s best in his division, was erased during the super-heavyweight final at the Caribbean Championships in Port-of-Spain when the 26-year old scored a deft first-round knock-out of Bermuda’s Freeman Smith to win his final amateur bout and enter the world of professional boxing on a high note. Prior to that, Manswell also served a reminder that he was also one of the top heavyweights in the western hemisphere by reaching the final four at both Pan American Olympic Games-qualifying tournaments in Tijuana and Rio de Janeiro. While semi-final losses to Devin Vargas of the USA (22-16) and Canada’s Jason Douglas (16-11) in both competitions did prevent Manswell from going to Athens to prove his worth, his overall performances re-affirmed the standing he enjoyed in the Americas.

TIANA SOSA-SANEY’S go-getting qualities have fuelled a three-year boxing career in which she has successfully tackled every challenge thrown her way so far. In 2003 she triumphed during  the first-ever women’s competition at the Caribbean Championships in Nassau, Bahamas by capturing the light-welterweight title. A lack of competition in that division forced the 28-year old to make the move to the middleweight ranks. The ascension in weight did little to dull her effectiveness in 2004, though, and she duly took the top prize in her class at the Caribbean Championships at the Jean Pierre Complex in Port-of-Spain by besting the Cayman Islands’ Tracey Seymour in the gold medal bout.

Sosa-Saney later stepped up to the crease to face her next challenge, her professional debut against fellow Trinidadian Christal Lessie: She recorded a unanimous decision in the four-round contest and was later ranked 14th by the Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) in the welterweight division ratings for November 2004.