The sixth time is the charm for Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who on Monday was named 2022 Laureus Sportswoman of the Year in Paris.
The 36-year-old track star, considered the greatest female 100m sprinter of all time, was rewarded for an incredible season during which she won an unprecedented fifth 100m world title in Eugene, Oregon and created even more history by becoming the first woman to run under 10.7 seconds for the 100m, a record seven times in the same season.
After opening her season in Nairobi, Kenya, the two-time Olympic gold medallist ran times of 10.67, 10.67, 10.66, 10.67, 10.62 and 10.65 to cap an amazing season.
She also won a fifth Diamond League 100m title during the season.
“I was thrilled to be nominated alongside such inspiring female athletes,” said Fraser-Pryce, who got the nod ahead of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, footballer Alexia Putellas, tennis star Iga Świątek, swimmer Katie Ledecky and alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin for the prestigious award.
“To win this award, voted for by some of the greatest sportsmen and women of all time, is just amazing. This is the sixth time I’ve been nominated in this category, so to finally hold the Laureus statuette in my hands is one of the greatest honours of my career.”
Fraser-Pryce is the third Jamaican athlete to win the award. Elaine Thompson-Herah won in 2022 for her exploits in 2021, while Usain Bolt won in 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2017.
A successful team of young gymnasts returns to Jamaica on Tuesday after its encouraging exploits at the recent Caribbean Classic in Trinidad and Tobago.
The 19-member group was assembled from schools in Kingston, Westmoreland, Montego Bay, Mandeville and St. Catherine after being selected from the Jamaica School of Gymnastics Regional Schools Championship recently held in March 2023.
These young athletes, considered by Jamaica Gymnastics Association President Nicole Grant to be the foundation of the Future Stars Program, won an array of medals on the bars, floor, beam and vault exercises.
Among them were Akayla Ireland, who was second on the beam and floor routines and third on the vault and bars, respectively and finished second overall.
Akeela Bonas was third overall after claiming second on the vault and bar and third in the beam and floor exercises. Jazharia Johnson won the beam, was second in the vault and third on the floor for second place overall.
Abigail Carpenter finished third on the beam while Kelli-Jo Reid was second on the beam and floor.
Bria Eubanks was third on the floor.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) have recently hosted a series of seven Coach Development Workshops specifically for coaches of all regional age group teams and the senior women’s teams.
The workshops were held in March and April with the main purpose of building stronger connections between all of the key regional pathway coaches as well as with the CWI High Performance team. Additionally, the workshops were geared towards providing the coaches with ongoing Coach Development opportunities to foster the best possible development environments for the talented players across the region.
The sessions included a mix of on-field and classroom sessions covering a range of topics including CWI online Athlete Management Systems (AMS), Individual Player Plan (IPP) upskilling session, batting against spin, developing tactical awareness through game sense scenarios, CWI High Performance programme insights, programme/game planning, elite talent identification and development.
“The CWI High Performance Unit are adding to the online workshop support that was provided to the coaches last year. This year we are also providing in-tournament support in the form of face-to-face workshops and coach observations both in training and on match days," said CWI Coach Development Manager, Chris Brabazon.
"This allows us to support the growth of the individual coaches whilst also learning more about some of the aspects that may need to be explored further with our broader coaching community.”
The groups of coaches have participated in a series of online workshops in the lead up to their respective tournaments with face-to-face development engagements taking place throughout the tournament.
All workshops were facilitated by CWI High Performance Unit staff including, Jimmy Adams (CWI Director of Cricket), Graeme West (CWI High Performance Manager), Chris Brabazon (CWI Coach Development Manager), Steve Liburd and Rohan Nurse (CWI Talent Pathway Managers).
This initiative is part of CWI’s “Cricket First” strategic plan to invest in building coaching depth and quality across the region, considering the vital role coaches play in developing cricketers’ skills across all age groups and abilities. It provides coaches with opportunities to further learn and develop contemporary coaching philosophies and techniques that will allow them to thrive in the various stages of the West Indies Cricket Pathway.
The next Coach Development Workshops will take place in St Kitts during the upcoming West Indies Women’s Regional Tournaments – the CG United Super50 and the T20 Blaze.
Over the last three years, CWI has accredited over 1000 new coaches across the region ranging from Foundation Courses to Level 3.
Just as they did last year, Lyssons Primary Schools of St Thomas successfully defended their INSPORTS/Devon Biscuits Primary Schools Eastern Championship amassing a massive 300.50 points and won by nearly 100 as second-placed Harbour View of St Andrew were well back on 201.33 points.
Lyssons Primary, who is also the 2022 National champion, walked away with the JMD$250,000 winning prize while Harbour View collected JMD$200,000. Kingston’s St Patrick’s Primary were third with 112.33 and got JMD $150,000.
Windward Road Primary with 111 points were fourth while John Mill Primary completed the top five with 98.33 points. Teams placed fourth to 10th will get JMD$75,000 each.
Omeco Henclewood of Holy Rosary and Davere Walker of Lyssons were joint overall male champion boys after winning two events and amassing 18 points each. Kayla Lewis of John Mills was the Girl’s overall champion amassing 18 points as well.
The INSPORTS/Devon Biscuits Primary Schools series moved to GC Foster on Monday for the three-day Central Championship (May 8-10) of which Greater Portmore are the defending champion.
Following the Western Championship (May 11-13) there will be the all-island National Championship to be held on May 25-27.
Teams Combined Rankings - 40 Events Scored
1) Lyssons Primary School 300.50
2) HARBOUR VIEW PRIMARY 201.33
3) St. Patrick's Primary 112.33
4) WINDWARD ROAD PRIMARY 111
5) John Mills Primary 98.33
6) Half Way Tree 91
7) St Richard’s Primary 85
8) Rousseau Primary School 73
9) New Providence 60
10) St Jude’s Primary 55
Former world eventing champion Ros Canter is within touching distance of a first Badminton Horse Trials title after she conquered punishing cross-country conditions to take pole position.
Lincolnshire-based Canter flourished with Lordships Graffalo – Badminton runners-up behind Laura Collett last year – on a day when many combinations floundered.
Double Olympic medallist Tom McEwen described the stamina-sapping going as “horrific”, and none of the starters threatened to jump clear inside the optimum time.
Canter collected 11.6 time penalties for an overnight score of 33.7, putting her nine penalties clear of Irish challenger Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue, with McEwen’s Olympic team gold medal-winning colleague Oliver Townend third aboard Ballaghmor Class on 45.9.
Canter, who won the world crown in North Carolina five years ago, can afford to have two fences down in Monday’s showjumping finale and still land the £105,000 top prize.
Thirty combinations completed the cross-country test, with almost half the field either being eliminated or deciding to retire.
“It felt hard work in terms of galloping,” 37-year-old Canter said.
“He had to dig deep, but he is so honest and is a fantastic jumper. He is economical with his jumping, and you can’t get much better.
“A horse like him should be celebrated – I have not sat on anything like him before. Tomorrow is another day, but whatever happens, he is a star.”
O’Connor rocketed 32 places up the leaderboard after dressage, adding just 10.8 penalties to his score in pursuit of a crown that has not been won by an Irish rider since Major Eddie Boylan in 1965.
Cork-born O’Connor, who is based in Oxfordshire, said: “The horse was amazing. He is the real deal.
“It was the hardest he has had to try in a five-star event, but he is full of class. I’ve got a great team at home and they have kept him very fit.
“He is one of the best horses in the world, and I am a lot older than I look! I have ridden a lot of cross-country courses in the wet before.”
McEwen, meanwhile, lies fifth on Toledo De Kerser, just behind world number one Tim Price, with Gemma Stevens in sixth and Canter holding seventh spot aboard her second ride Pencos Crown Jewel.
Following their victory over GIANTS, Shamera Sterling’s Adelaide Thunderbirds are the new leaders of the Suncorp Super Netball League after defending champions West Coast Fever suffered only their second loss of the season on Saturday.
Led by Eleanor Cardwell near perfect 26 goals from 27 attempts and Lucy Austin’s 13 from 15, Thunderbirds led 18-13 at the end of the first quarter. However, Jo Harten who scored 23 goals from 25 shots and Sophie Dwyer (17/20) closed the gap to three by half-time as GIANTS outscored Thunderbirds 15-13 in the second stanza.
GIANTS dominated the third quarter 13-9 and take a slim lead into the final quarter of the game but Thunderbirds rallied to win the quarter 14-9 and take the game 54-50 for their sixth win of the season.
Fever, meanwhile, went down 74-73 in a thriller to Melbourne Vixens despite a game-high 48 goals of 49 attempts from the league top scorer Jhaniele Fowler, who now has 446 goals on the season.
However, after both teams traded goals for the entire match, it was Kiera Austin’s super shot at the buzzer than kept the Vixens unbeaten at home this season and handed the defending champions their second loss of the season.
Mwai Kumwenda led the Vixens with 45 goals from 50 attempts while Austin scored 23 from 29 for her side that outscored Fever 18-16 in the first quarter before sharing honours 19-19 in the second to take a two goal lead into the break.
Fever rallied to take the third quarter 19-16 but thanks to Austin’s super shot, Vixens edged the final quarter 21-19 to secure their fifth win of the season.
In the battle between the teams at the foot of the table, Donnell Wallam scored a game high 64 goals from 65 attempts to lead the Queensland Firebirds to their second win of the season, a 73-67 win over Collingwood Magpies.
Shimona Nelson scored 56 goals from 58 attempts for the Magpies who were losing their sixth game of the season.
Team Jamaica will leave the island on Sunday (May 7) to defend their West Indies Full Bore Shooting Championship in Antigua & Barbuda between May 8-14 at the Crabb's Range.
The team to be led by Captain Phillip Scott will include the current national Full-Bore champion Nicola Guy, Jamaica’s first female national champion. Also on the team is two-time Amazon trophy winner and O Class champion Karen Anderson.
Major John Nelson, the president of the West Indies Full Bore Shooting Council and five-time Wogarth Cup winner, reigning Wogarth Cup winner, Captain Dwayne Ford, Canute CC Coley, Dennis Lee and Dr. Derek Mitchell complete the line-up.
George Hutton will serve as team manager.
Full Bore competition features competitors shooting from a prone position from distances of 300, 500, 600, 900 and 1,000 yards. Notably only Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica have 900-yard and 1,000-yard courses.
Shooters compete in three possible classes. X Class comprise the top 15-20 shooters in the Caribbean. T Class is any shooter participating in a regional shoot for the first time. Everyone else is in O Class.
Jamaica is considered to be a power house in Full Bore Shooting having won several championships and is always on the podium.
The Amazon trophy is awarded to the highest-scoring female while Wogarth Cup is awarded to the shooter who has the highest score in the team match.
Defending champions Nicholas Chen and Aliana McMaster are ready to defend their titles at the Rangers Gun Club and Family Fun Day which is set for Sunday, May 7 beginning at 10 am at the True Juice complex in Bog Walk, St. Catherine.
The Rangers Gun Club is expecting a field of approximately one hundred and fifty shooters along with family members to trek the lush walking course venue for a day of individual and team competition featuring the local gun clubs.
For the second year in a row four clubs will compete for the trophy; Driftwood Gun Club, Jamaica Gun Club, Rangers Gun Club and defending champions, the Trelawny Gun Club.
Competition for top honors will be stiff as some of the Jamaica Skeet Club's best shooters will be vying for top honors. They include nine-time national shotgun champion Ian Banks, six-time national shotgun champion Shaun Barnes, current national shotgun champion Chad Ziadie, his father Geoffrey Ziadie, Ray McMaster, Andrew Hopwood, Ryan Chen and Bobby Chung as well as the high performance family team of female McMasters - Aliana, Wendy (five-time national shotgun champion) and Abigail along with other well known female shooters in Renee Rickhi, who is part of the Jamaica Rifle Association's Alpha Angels lady shooters, Marguerite Harris and Tara Brown.
Shooters in various classes from A- E, Hunters or Beginners, Juniors, Sub-Juniors, and Ladies will be competing in order to win their classes and, in some cases, move up to more challenging classes. The course features a seventeen-station walking course.
Part proceeds from the event will be donated to the Food for the Poor organization.
The lead sponsor for the Rangers Gun Club Sporting Clays and Family Day is Sterling Asset Management. Worthy Park Select is the gold sponsor and there are several 'station' sponsors.
The club has rich a history of young business men and some of their fathers who loved shooting getting together in the mid 1980s to start the Rangers Gun Club at their Salt Gully base in St. Catherine.
They initially focused on bird shooting then took on sporting clays which is currently the most popular form of the sport and is said to be the favorite of the younger shooters. The tournament is being brought back by on their request. The club's archives show that Michael Ammar, John Ammar, David Shoucair and Wayne Srour took the leap with Michael Ammar Sr., Sameer Younis and Dr. Badih Shoucair to start the club.
The Cricket West Indies (CWI) Senior Men’s Selection Panel on Friday named the fifteen-man squad for the West Indies “A” Team tour of Bangladesh. Joshua Da Silva, the West Indies Test wicket-keeper/batter, will captain the team in the three four-day “Test” matches against Bangladesh “A” starting on 16 May.
Along with Da Silva, the 15-member squad includes other players with West Indies Test match experience: left-handed opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul, left-handed allrounder Raymon Reifer, fast bowler Anderson Phillip and left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie.
The squad also includes three newcomers to the international level: openers Kirk McKenzie and Zachary McCaskie as well as fast bowler Jair McAllister. All three made their first-class debuts during the West Indies Championship four-day first-class tournament earlier this year.
Lead Selector, the Most Honorable Dr. Desmond Haynes, stated that the aim was to pick a balanced team as they look to expose the players to overseas conditions.
“We selected a group of players who we think could benefit from the exposure in Bangladesh and we also have our eyes on the upcoming Test Series against India in the Caribbean.”
He added: “Among the newcomers, we have pace bowler McAllister who is fast and strong and has the ability to unsettle batters. McCaskie had a solid start to his first-class career, showed good temperament, and also has the ability to play all around the wicket. McKenzie was eye-catching during his double-century for the West Indies Academy in the Headley Weekes Tri-Series. It was a superb knock and demonstrated that the investment in the Academy is bearing fruit.”
West Indies “A” Team will arrive in Bangladesh on 11 May and play the three four-day “Test” matches at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium (SICS) in Sylhet. These matches will have full first-class status.
This “A” team tour reciprocates the Bangladesh “A” team tour of the West Indies in August 2022, when the teams drew both a two-match series of four-day first-class matches and also a three-match 50-over series at the Daren Sammy Stadium in Saint Lucia.
FULL SQUAD
Joshua DaSilva (Captain)
Alick Athanaze
Yannic Cariah
Keacy Carty
Tagenarine Chanderpaul
Tevin Imlach
Akeem Jordan
Brandon King
Jair McAllister
Zachary McCaskie
Kirk McKenzie
Gudakesh Motie
Anderson Phillip
Raymon Reifer
Kevin Sinclair
MATCH SCHEDULE
All matches at SICS, Sylhet
16-19 May: 1st “Test”
23-26 May: 2nd “Test”
30 May to 2 June: 3rd “Test”
Guyanese all-rounder Kevin Sinclair was the star of the day as Team Weekes secured an eight wicket win over Team Headley inside three days at the Coolidge Cricket Ground on Friday.
Beginning day three 67-2, Team Headley only managed to add a further 86 runs before being dismissed for 153 in 63.1 overs, leaving Team Weekes needing just 96 for victory.
Matthew Nandu carried on from his overnight 26 to top-score with 36 while Justin Greaves ended 25*.
Sinclair ripped through the Headley XI batting line-up on the way to grabbing 5-48 in his 21 overs. His countryman, Veerasammy Permaul, took 2-20 in 13.1 overs.
Team Weekes then needed 26.5 overs to reach 96-2. Openers Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Zachary McCaskie both made 33 while Raymon Reifer and Captain Alick Athanaze finished on 19* and 10*, respectively.
The West Indies Academy emerged as overall winners of the Tri-Series after a dominant win over Team Headley and a first-innings triumph over Team Weekes in their two games.
The Institute of Sports (INSPORTS) officially launched the 41st staging of the INSPORTS Primary Schools All-Island Athletics Championships in a ceremony held inside the Hospitality Room at the National Stadium in Kingston on Thursday.
The Championships, scheduled for May 4-27, will see competition among 130 schools with 6000 students in three regional championships leading up to the grand finale, the national championships.
“Today marks the start of what we have come to regard as our marquee sports event in Jamaica for juniors,” said Minister of Gender, Culture, Education and Sport, the Hon. Olivia “Babsy” Grange.
The Eastern Championships got underway on Thursday at Stadium East and will last until May 6.
The competition then moves to the GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sport for the Central Championships from May 8-10.
From there, the competition moves to St. Elizabeth Technical High School for the Western Championships between May 11 and May 13.
The National Championships, expected to showcase the best of the best in terms of Primary School athletics in the country, takes place from May 25-27 to decide the All-Island champion.
“It will be thrilling to see the youngsters out there competing. They look forward to it and are excited about it and we know we are looking at future world champions,” said Grange.
Devon Biscuits, who came on board as a major sponsor last year, will serve as title sponsors in 2023 and have committed $9 million to INSPORTS.
“We are happy to be on board,” said Brand Manager for Devon Biscuits, Sherene Bryan.
“We recognize the importance of encouraging, supporting and fostering Jamaica’s talent,” Bryan added before going into how Devon Biscuits came on board in 2022.
“We were made aware of the Championships two days before the meet began. I saw a social media post which was made by my dear friend, Trishana McGowan, and I reached out to her to ask if they had a sponsor. She then advised me that there was no sponsor on board. I then called her and requested the information for the directors of Insports and she provided it that opened the door for further conversations and now we’re here as the title sponsors.”
First Vice President of the Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association, the Hon. Ian Forbes, spoke on behalf of the association.
“41 years means that something right would have been happening. This is where the seeds of greatness are sewn,” Forbes said.
A half-century from Devon Thomas was crucial in Weekes XI eking out a 58-run lead over Headley XI on the second day of the final match of the Headley Weekes Tri-Series at Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua on Thursday.
Resuming from their overnight score of 61-3 in reply to Headley XI’s 177, Weekes XI were 155-7 still 22 runs behind when Thomas and Veerasammy Permaul added a crucial 68 for the eighth wicket that gave their side the small lead.
Earlier Alick Athanaze made 37 as he and Kacey Carty, who scored 12, took Weekes XI past 100 runs with a 46-run stand but both fell in quick succession to Anderson Phillip and then Hodge dismissed Kevin Sinclair and Dominic Drakes for 12 and 18, respectively, which resulted in Weekes XI slipping from 107-2 to 155-7.
The eighth wicket partnership that ended with Permaul’s dismissal for 35 and which gave Hodge this third wicket had taken Weekes XI to 223. However, once Permaul fell, it didn’t take long for the Headley XI bowlers to wrap the innings up.
Akeem Jordan bowled Thomas for 57 and Jordan bowled Jair McAllister for a duck with the score at 235.
Hodge took 3-46, Phillip 2-44 and Jordan 2-41.
By the close, Kieran Powell was dismissed by Dominic Drakes for nine and Hodge was caught and bowled by Kevin Sinclair for 28 but by then Headley XI had eked out a five run lead. Matthew Nandu remains undefeated on 26 and Sunil Ambris has a run on the board with Headley XI at 67-2 at stumps.
Cricket West Indies has moved to settle their legal dispute with former selectors Courtney Browne and Eldine Baptiste, cricket commentator and broadcaster Andrew Mason is reporting.
The two former West Indies players received letters of termination on April 10, 2019, shortly after Ricky Skerritt and Dr Kishore Shallow won the Cricket West Indies presidential elections in March that year. The termination letters made reference to a task force that was being established to review the selection system. The task force that was chaired by CWI Vice President Dr Kishore Shallow was expected to make recommendations.
Notwithstanding that the task force had not yet met, CWI fired the selectors ahead any recommendations that would have come from the task force. The matter has been before the courts for the past four years until now when Mason reported that CWI had decided to settle and will pay all legal costs and 15 months’ payment of the contract.
Mason anticipates that Brown’s pay out would amount to about US$75,000. The money would represent welcome funds for Browne, who is still undergoing rehabilitation after suffering serious injuries in a motor-vehicle accident in December 2019.
The driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident, died on the spot.
Dominic Drakes and Veerasammy Permaul each took three wickets as Weekes’ XI bowled Headley XI out for 177 on Wednesday’s opening day of the final match in the Headley Weekes Tri-Series at Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua.
However, Headley XI’s bowlers have struck back having Weekes XI at 61-3 at stumps still trailing by 116 runs.
Drakes dismissed three of the five top order batsmen as Headley XI got off to a terrible start and were reduced to 74-6. Only opener Kieran Powell with 23 managed to get into double figures.
Kavem Hodge and Ackeem Jordan held the Weekes’ bowlers at bay with a partnership of 71 but then Jordan became Permaul’s 600th first-class wicket when he was caught behind for 37. Kevin Sinclair soon after ended Hodge’s vigil for 67 and Permaul cleaned up the tail dismissing Chaim-Alexis Holder and Marquino Mindley for three and seven, respectively.
Drakes ended with figures of 3-17 while Permaul took 3-18.
In reply, Weekes’ XI lost Zachary McCaskie to Marquino Mindley for two but Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Raymon Reifer added 48 for the second wicket before Holder struck, dismissing Chanderpaul for 12 and 11 runs later, got Reifer for 34 as Weekes XI slipped to 61-3.
Holder has so far taken 2-2 while Mindley has 1-17.
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