Twenty memorable moments in 2009 sport.
By: Kern De Freitas (T&T Express).
The Year 2009 was full of the bitter, sweet and in between, with many memorable moments in local and regional sport. Here are some of the top moments for 2009, as we look to a full year of great sporting moments in 2010.
Kirt Sinnette
There was not much ado when Kirt Sinnette evened out the single loss of his professional career, putting away Jermaine Mackey less than three weeks ago to secure the FedeLatin Super Middleweight title. The one blemish on Sinnette’s pro record came at the hands of the Bahamian Mackey, but Sinnette, despite taking some punishment in the early and middle rounds of the bout, seemed to get a second wind late on, and laid Mackey on the canvas one minute and 37 seconds into the 11th round to score a technical knockout win. Sinnette’s record now stands at 19-1 (15 knockouts). There may not have been much fanfare for the win, but it was arguably Sinnette’s biggest win of his career, and the brightest moment for T&T boxing in 2009, a year of controversy and major tragedy in the sport.
Kwandwane Browne, Stacey Siu Butt
Accustomed to dominating on the outdoor field or the indoor court, Kwan Browne and Stacey Siu Butt once again picked up nominations for the First Citizens Sports Foundation Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awards with a stellar 2009. Browne was the leading goal scorer at the Pan American Cup in Chile, helping T&T to a fifth-place finish and was one of the top five local hockey men for his 11 goals. Siu Butt was also one of the top five among the local women, and once again led her club, Carib Magnolia, to the Championship League and Magnolia’s Indoor titles. Honourable mention also goes to Defence Force stalwart, Nicole Aming, who along with Browne and Siu Butt, was named to the Pan American Elite Players team.
Bruceontheloose
This Jamaican-bred three-year-old grey colt has never looked back since winning the Republic Bank Derby at Santa Rosa Park, Arima. He also won the Midsummer Classic to pick up two legs of the Triple Crown. He became the first horse in local history to turn over $1 million in a single season after running away with the Gold Cup on Boxing Day. Bruceontheloose, the son of Wheelaway/Road to Justice, also won two legs of the Jamaica Triple Crown, his accomplishments taking him to the Horse of the Year title at a canter.
WICB/WIPA impasse
After a winning start to the year with a 1-0 home result over England to lift the Wisden Trophy for the first time in 15 years, the West Indies lost the return series but reached the World T20 semi-finals in England. Any joy was short-lived, as the row between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) came to a head, with the top regional players opting out of the Bangladesh series. The hosts lost all their matches in that series except for the T20 encounter. The team also went winless for an early exit at the Champions Trophy. The embarrassing turn of events left many speculating on the future of West Indies in Test cricket. There were even suggestions that the regional team would be better off split into their various territories.
WICB/WIPA ’settlement’
After the embarrassing standoff threatened to wreck the already wobbly foundation of Caribbean cricket, a silver lining appeared just in time for the West Indies tour to Australia with the announcement of a tentative agreement between the WICB and WIPA. Although there had been calls for the frontline West Indies players to return to action, this was thwarted by the WICB’s preference for the Floyd Reifer-led replacements. Mediator Sir Sridath Ramphal enjoyed little success, but a deal was brokered after the intervention of Guyana president Bharrat Jagdeo, clearing the way for the full-strength West Indies to head ’Down Under’.
Movement for Change win T&TCB Elections
With the momentum Movement for Change developed during their September/October campaign, it was not a total surprise that they won the T&T Cricket Board elections on October 31. What was shocking was their landslide victory over the incumbent president Deryck Murray and his ’Friends of Cricket’. In Murray’s tenure as T&TCB head, T&T had seen marked success, but it appeared not to be enough to keep them at the helm. Only Sukesh Maniram was able to hold onto the post of treasurer, thanks to Murray’s casting vote. Murray lost 23-26 to his successor, ’Movement’s’ Azim Bassarath.
T&T runners-up in Airtel T/20
T&T travelled to India for the Airtel Champions League T20 as rank underdogs, and returned home as darlings of the tournament, despite going down to Australia’s New South Wales in the tournament final. Until then, they had been unbeaten in the competition, including a thrashing of New South Wales in the preliminary round, thanks in the main to a belligerent, 18-ball half century from Kieron Pollard with T&T on the ropes. They also made the highest score of the tournament in 213 for four, and other players like Adrian Barath, Dwayne Bravo and skipper Daren Ganga shone for T&T. Pollard and Bravo were rewarded for their performances with contracts to play in Australia’s Twenty20 Big Bash, while Barath went on to score a century on his Test debut for the West Indies. T&T showed they were no fluke, returning home to capture the regional President’s Cup One Day tournament as well.
Lucas, Quow, Gordon shine for T&T at World Champs
While some of the bigger names failed to shine for T&T at the 12th IAAF World Championships in the traditional individual sprints, some of the lesser known athletes stepped up and shone their lights. Quarter-miler Renny Quow has shown his ability in the past, and he surpassed expectations to grab 400-metre bronze, while Josanne Lucas also grabbed bronze for T&T in the 400m hurdles event, twice setting a new national mark (53.20 seconds) in the process. Jehue Gordon, at age 17, stunned the world by eclipsing the national mark in the men’s 400mh, astonishingly finishing just shy of bronze in a national record 48.26 in the final. T&T’s 4x100m relay men also medalled with silver in a national record 37.62, and the 4x100m women lowered their national mark with 43.22 in the heats.
Soca Warriors, failed World Cup campaign
A Soca Warriors World Cup South Africa 2010 campaign that seemed doomed from the start petered out into meek surrender despite the national team reaching the final round of CONCACAF qualifying. T&T never benefitted from any momentum taken from their 2006 exploits at their maiden World Cup in Germany, perhaps mainly due to the ’player blacklist’ that followed the Cup, as well as the failure to infuse new blood and groom a new team to take on the world on the sport’s biggest stage. The final round started with a 2-2 draw away to El Salvador after T&T led 2-0 for 80 minutes, during which time they missed a penalty. They never recovered, finishing with six points from ten matches, including three draws and a single home win over the Salvadoreans on a single Cornell Glen goal.
Coach Latapy
One of the bright spots of the failed qualifying campaign was the appointment of former T&T midfield star Russell Latapy as head coach to replace Colombian Francisco Maturana, and the subsequent introduction of his friend and former T&T football team partner-in-crime, Dwight Yorke as assistant coach. Yorke started the campaign as captain, but was sent off in the first final round qualifier against El Salvador, and had to serve a suspension. Afterwards, he had limited on-field appearances before his final retirement and newfound role on the T&T bench. Latapy, it may be argued with some merit, may have been introduced to the role a bit soon, but the great respect he has been shown by the players, as well as his attempts to give younger players the necessary international experience are positive moves that could augur well for the future of T&T football if he is retained.
Five titles for Joe Public
Kudos have to go to Jack Warner’s Joe Public Football Club professional team for their approach to the 2009 season. Joe Public showed their staying power when they overcame a sluggish start, kicking into high gear to wrest the Pro League crown away from San Juan Jabloteh. Consistency was the Eastern Lions’s key to the League, and they underlined their quality by securing the Big Six title as well. Joe Public lost to Defence Force in the First Citizens Cup on a late Army goal, but won the Toyota Classic, FA Trophy and Digicel Pro Bowl titles convincingly. The last two, they won within the space of three days, playing more matches locally than any other club in the 2009 season and yet still swimming in success.
Ames wins Disney’s ’Classic’
It has not been Stephen Ames’s best year on the PGA Tour, and the embattled Tiger Woods is not the major cause. Still, the Trinidad and Tobago-born professional golfer did strut his stuff to win the Disney’s Children’s Miracle Network Classic, in Orlando, Florida. Ames needed a good score to complete the triumph, after moulding a winning position for himself the previous days. ’I wished for 64,’ Ames, who competes under a Canadian flag these days, said then, ’and I got that 64.’ At 45, he became the oldest winner of the event, edging out Americans George McNeill and Justin Leonard in a playoff at the end. Ames ended the year 37th on the 2009 money list, with US $2,131,528 in earnings and four top-ten finishes.
Emile Ramsammy
Over the years, Emile Ramsammy has been quietly trotting into the history books. He is considered one of the best Caribbean jockeys ever, and this year he continued to enhance his reputation. By the time he celebrated his 47th birthday on December 11, Ramsammy had already surpassed 2,000 career wins at Woodbine in Canada. He is only the fourth jockey to achieve that feat, after Barbadian Patrick Husbands and Canadians Jim McAleney and Robert Landry. He did it riding chestnut colt Perfect Student, a horse trained by T&T-born Gregory de Gannes. At the beginning of December, Ramsammy had already reached 116 wins for the season for fifth spot on a list dominated by Husbands, who is closing in on 200 wins.
T&T U-20 World Cup campaign
While T&T’s senior ’Soca Warriors’ were crashing out of CONCACAF final round World Cup qualifying, their Under-20 compatriots were putting on this country’s best-ever showing at a youth World Cup, or any other football World Cup. They put up a brave fight to draw level with Egypt 1-1, their first goal in a world football competition, after the hosts went ahead in the first half. But T&T faded in the second half, as Egypt cantered home 4-1. T&T improved with each match. They suffered a gutsy 2-1 loss to Italy, who struggled to gain the ascendancy for most of the match, and ended with their lone point when they held Paraguay to a 0-0 result in their final match of the tournament. The Under-20s had four call-ups to the national team for World Cup qualifying.
Tragic end for world champion Salandy
The New Year had scarcely begun when tragedy struck, and T&T lost a sporting gem in Jizelle Salandy. In the wee hours of the morning of January 4, the vehicle Salandy was driving crashed into a pillar on the outskirts of Port of Spain, instantly killing the boxer 21 days short of her 22nd birthday. The other occupant of the car, then national women’s team footballer Tamar Watson, suffered broken legs and was in critical condition, but managed to pull through. For all the hype about T&T boxers, Salandy perhaps came closest to delivering for T&T on the bravado and boasting that the sport generates. Only nine days earlier, she had defended her eight titles, including the World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Association (WBA) and Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) junior-middleweight belts. Salandy was posthumously awarded the First Citizens Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year award.
Ria Ramnarine
Another female boxer in Ria Ramnarine enters the list, and in inauspicious circumstances. Ramnarine earned what most boxing fans and reporters would term a ’home decision’ against Ana Fernandez for the WBA Interim World and WBC Cabofe titles. Ramnarine clearly struggled during the fight, but won a split decision for the titles. Later, a review of the controversial decision prompted the WBA to order a rematch, but Ramnarine pulled up injured. The fight never took place, after both parties had been unable to agree to terms and conditions of the rematch. Ramnarine was placed on the Boxing Day card to oppose Colombian Pauline Cardona, but again financial difficulties and logistics have been blamed by promoter Boxu Potts for rescheduling the fight, which will now take place today, at Saith Park, Chaguanas instead.
Caribbean Games cancelled
A cloud was thrown over T&T sport when Government announced that the highly anticipated Caribbean Games would not take place in July as planned. Mere weeks before the scheduled run off, Health Minister Jerry Narace announced that the looming threat of the H1N1 virus (swine flu) had forced the cancellation of the Games, which was expecting a large influx of regional athletes. Many were sceptical about the reason offered. Even before the cancellation announcement, there were rumours that the multi-sport event was in danger because of a lack of funds, non-participation of world class athletes and unfinished venues. The July 31 Pan American Junior Championships did run off at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, prompting speculation on why the Caribbean Games did not get the green light.
West Indies Down Under
After suffering a devastating defeat by an innings and 65 runs at the hands of hosts Australia, a sorely ill-prepared West Indies, battered and bruised by the international cricket world and reporters, bounced back. In the second Test, at Adelaide, the Caribbean cricketers were very competitive, thanks mainly to a first innings century from Dwayne Bravo and an excellent but measured 165 from captain Chris Gayle, who carried his bat. There were also good fifties from Brendan Nash and Shivnarine Chanderpaul and lower order help from Darren Sammy and last man Ravi Rampaul. Suliemann Benn, Kemar Roach and Bravo also conspired with the ball to leave the Aussies tottering at 131 for five, and only a partnership between Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin denied the West Indies their first win in Australia in nearly 13 years. Australia won the three-match series 2-0, but it was much closer than the result admitted. The tour also saw a remarkable century on debut from T&T opener Adrian Barath.
The Replacements (Floyd Reifer)
When virtually no one wanted to play for West Indies, up stepped the replacements. Omar Phillips, Dale Richards, Floyd Reifer, Travis Dowlin, Chadwick Walton, Darren Sammy, Kemar Roach, Ryan Austin, Tino Best, Kevin McClean, Nelon Pascal, Andre Creary, Nikita Miller, Kraigg Brathwaite and David Bernard were selected. Only captain Reifer, Sammy, Best and Bernard had any Test experience, the latter having played just a single Test. They endured a two-Test and three-One Day International beating at the hands of Bangladesh and lost three matches at the Champions Trophy tournament. They were repaid by the WICB with central contracts, and Roach’s hostility and pace earned him a pick for the tour to Australia once the impasse ended, while Sammy also retained his place.
West Indies series win over England
At the start of 2009, there were many young cricket fans who would not have had any memories of a West Indies series win over England, or any other top-ranked Test playing nation for that matter. But West Indies gave regional fans a reason to smile when they drew four straight Tests to win the series 1-0 in February/March, after Jerome Taylor ripped through the heart of the English batting to help West Indies win the opening Test in Jamaica by an innings and 23 runs. Fidel Edwards hung around with Denesh Ramdin, with England smelling victory in the final Test at the Queen’s Park Oval, to eke out a draw, West Indies closing on 114 for eight. They held the Wisden Trophy for just over two months, but for that period, West Indies did something that had not been managed for some time: make Caribbean people smile.
