http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Merlene_Ottey_for_Commonwealth_awards-162439336.htmlMerlene Ottey for Commonwealth awards
T&T to host event in October
By Roger Seepersad
Story Created: Jul 13, 2012 at 11:02 PM ECT Some of the world's legendary former athletes are expected to come to Trinidad and Tobago later this year as the country hosts the 30th Commonwealth Sports Awards at Hyatt Regency Hotel on October 20.
T&T's hosting of the awards was announced yesterday at a media launch at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain when it was also revealed that an Olympic reunion of the top three finishers of the 1976 Olympic Games 100m final could be in the making.
All Sport Promotions are the project coordinators of the Awards and marketing director Anthony Harford said yesterday that they were working towards having the 1976 100 metres top three—Hasely Crawford, Don Quarrie and Valeriy Borzov—attend the awards but insisted that the reunion is not yet confirmed.
In the meantime, he said Jamaican sprint queen Merlene Ottey would also be attending the ceremony as one of four persons who will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards.
The Commonwealth Sports Awards, which seeks to honour excellence in athletes of the Commonwealth, will also form part of T&T's 50th Anniversary celebrations with the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development sponsoring 50 percent of the cost of hosting the awards, which Harford estimates to be TT$1.8 million.
The awards also aim to encourage youth from across the Commonwealth to aspire to greater heights.
The awardees will be drawn from nominations from the 71 individual Commonwealth Games Federations who will nominate athletes who excelled during the period July 2011 to June 2012.
There will be eight main categories, including Outstanding Male Athlete, Outstanding Female Athlete, Outstanding Male Athlete with a Disability, Outstanding Female Athlete with a Disability, Outstanding Young Achiever, Sports Administrator of the Year, Most Outstanding Team and Lifetime Achievement Award.
The finalists in each category will be determined by panels representing each of the six Commonwealth regions.
Founder of the Awards Al Hamilton said one of the reasons the awards were conceived back in 1980 was "to enhance two aspects of us as a people and that is to look at the legacy that we have."
He said: "If you look at 1948 when Jamaica won the first gold medal in London...If you look at what we have now, we have a situation where the Olympics are now regarded as the Caribbean Olympics in the UK.
"I considered it as an opportunity we could not allow anywhere else within the Commonwealth to get this other than the Caribbean." Hamilton added.
"What will happen come October 20 is that there will be a plethora of sporting icons from the Commonwealth coming here and we can announce that one of the great athletes to come from the this region will be here and that is Merlene Ottey," he revealed.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development Arlene McComie was also at the launch and said the Ministry was pleased to be part of the hosting of the event.
"We view our Golden Jubilee as both a milestone marking progress, an opportunity for reflection and as a platform on which to anchor future achievements. In a world of partnerships and collaboration, we are happy to be partnering with the countries of the Commonwealth to host this international event," she added.
Harford also noted that a local committee will be set up to come up with four local persons to be honoured at the Awards which he said will be broadcast live across the Caribbean and other parts of the world.
