World-class cyclist Nicholas Paul and Olympian Tyra Gittens walked away with the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year titles at the 59th edition of the First Citizens Sports Awards in Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday.
T&T’s Olympic 4X400m metre relay team of Machel Cedenio, Jereem Richards, Dwight St. Hillaire and the late Deon Lendore, who won the Lytsra Lewis Award, were also recognized at the ceremony hosted by 2013 400m hurdles World Champion Jehue Gordon and aired on CNC3 Television in the twin-island republic.
Swimmer Nikoli Blackman was crowned the Youth Sportsman of the Year 2021 for the consecutive year while tennis player Jordane Dookie was selected as the Youth Sportswoman of the Year 2021 title. Meanwhile, the Jeffrey Stollmeyer Award went to The Tennis Association of Trinidad & Tobago for outstanding administrative work.
Overall, 46 of T&T’s top athletes were honoured during the ceremony for their outstanding achievements over the past year. The country’s Minister of Sport and Community Development Shamfa Cudjoe praised the awardees for what he described as their “unrelenting spirit, sense of pride and purpose, and the larger than life persona they exude every time they set out to represent the red, white and black.
“You are our true heroes, who serve as a symbol of hope, perseverance, courage and strength, not only to our youth but to our nation,” she said.
Chairman of the First Citizens Sports Foundation, Dr Terry Ali, echoed similar sentiments while adding that the Sports Foundation would continue with its collaborative work with key stakeholders to support the successful restart of sporting events in Trinidad and Tobago.
Karen Darbasie, Group Chief Executive Officer at First Citizens, expressed gratitude at being able to honour the country’s best athletes. “The First Citizens Sports Awards is yet another proud moment, not only for those being honoured but also for us, who have been privileged to uphold that responsibility of bestowing honour,” she said.
Among the youth finalists who received awards were Alan-Safar Ramoutar – Chess; Ryan D’Abreau – Cycling; Shakeem Mc Kay – Track & Field; Zara La Fleur – Chess; Janae De Gannes – Track & Field; and Natassia Baptiste – Volleyball.
Among the senior finalists were Nigel Paul – Boxing; Dylan Carter – Swimming; Andrew Lewis – Sailing; Teniel Campbell – Cycling; Kennya Cordner – Football; Felice Aisha Chow – Rowing, and Samantha Wallace – Netball.
Tom Pidcock happy to ‘play down’ yellow jersey ambitions at Tour de France
Tom Pidcock is reluctant to call it a target but the opportunity to take the yellow jersey on the opening weekend of this year’s Tour de France has not escaped his notice.
The 23-year-old will race his second Tour this July, and said his goal is to do better than he did on debut last summer.
That might seem a lofty ambition given how Pidcock stormed to a stunning solo stage victory on the Alpe d’Huez, the descending skills with which he escaped his breakaway companions still talked of with awe.
But it would get even more attention if the Ineos Grenadiers rider enjoyed a spell in yellow, and a lumpy opening stage in the Basque Country offers a rider of Pidcock’s talents a chance.
“I think it is (an opportunity), yeah,” he told the PA news agency. “It’s a possibility and something that I am aware is a possibility. I think the first stage of the Tour is one that can be treated like a one-day classic, it’s going to be a super-hard day.”
When told that sounds non-committal, Pidcock quickly adds: “I’m just playing it down.”
Pidcock, who proved his one-day credentials at Strade Bianche in March, is far from alone in eyeing that opening stage, but he has other goals in July too.
He wants to show greater consistency in the general classification, and also to win a stage from the main bunch rather than a break.
“Last year I was going to the Tour two months after being ill in the spring and then getting Covid, it was not the perfect lead in,” he said. “I think this year I’m stronger and I can do better, basically.”
Pidcock is certainly riding high on the back of his recent spell on the mountain bike.
The Olympic champion took two victories from the World Cup round in Novo Mesto, first storming from last to first to win a short track race he only learned he was riding with a couple of hours’ notice, then recovering from a lap-five crash to win the cross-country race.
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It came after he finished second in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and third in the Amstel Gold Race at the end of April.
The run of form is affirmation for the work Pidcock did in the winter, when he chose not to defend his cyclo-cross world title but instead focus on conditioning.
Although a crash at Tirreno-Adriatico in late March punched a hole in some of his ambitions, the core fitness remains.
“Definitely I feel I’m a bit more robust and certainly at a higher level and I have been for longer and I think that’s partly from the extra time spent building a base preparing,” he said. “I think that’s only going to carry into the rest of the season.”
Throughout his young career to date, the Yorkshireman has juggled the demands of road, mountain bike and cross, but always knew there would come a time when something had to give. This season has shown how that might look.
“I think if I want to achieve the goals I do on the road, certainly there are going to have to be sacrifices in other disciplines,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean they don’t contribute and help with those ambitions.”
There are likely to be sacrifices too at August’s World Championships in Scotland, where the first combined multi-discipline championships is creating dilemmas for several athletes given the schedule clashes.
Pidcock plans to race his mountain bike, so is strongly leading towards skipping the road race which comes first and could come at a cost.
“I don’t want to do both and go home with nothing,” he said. “I’d want to ride the road race because it’s a home race and it will be a super nice experience and I think the worlds is a very special particular race where you never know what will happen.
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing to ride, I want to ride, but would it be the best thing? I don’t know.”
:: Tom Pidcock is a Red Bull athlete. Watch him appear in ‘Race Tapes‘, the new Red Bull series that delves into the lives of the world’s leading riders across all disciplines.
Mark Cavendish lands emotional victory in final stage of farewell Giro d’Italia
Mark Cavendish won the final stage of his last Giro d’Italia to spark scenes of huge emotion in Rome as Primoz Roglic confirmed his overall victory.
Cavendish, who announced on the second rest day of this race that this season would be his last, made it look easy as he opened up several bike lengths over Alex Kirsch and Fernando Gaviria even before a crash on the final approach split the bunch.
It was a 17th career Giro stage win for the 38-year-old Manxman, who kept alive his record of winning at least one stage every time he had taken part in the Italian Grand Tour.
It was also Cavendish’s first win of the season and first with the Astana-Qazaqstan team, a timely confidence boost as he now turns his attentions to the Tour de France and his bid to take the stage win record there outright.
Astana may not have the greatest sprint pedigree or a lead-out train for Cavendish, but that hardly mattered when he had Geraint Thomas – who lost the pink jersey to Roglic on Saturday’s time trial – lending a hand, the Ineos Grenadiers rider offering a lead-out going into the final two kilometres.
The oldest ever stage winner in Giro history was a hugely popular one as Roglic and Thomas were quick to offer their congratulations.
Roglic takes the overall win by 14 seconds from Thomas, the fourth smallest margin of victory in Giro history.
Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago secure round four wins in CWI Women’s T20 Blaze; Barbados, Guyana level on points heading into final round
An unbeaten half-century from captain Shemaine Campbelle lifted Guyana to a crucial eight-wicket win over defending champions Jamaica in their Cricket West Indies (CWI) Women’s T20 Blaze match on Thursday.
The stylish right-hander made 50* from 49 balls including five fours and shared an unbroken third wicket stand of exactly 100 with allrounder Shakibi Gajnabi, as the Guyanese successfully chased 110 in the opening match of the triple-header at Warner Park, St Kitts.
Gajnabi supported well with 37 not out from 46 balls and the result was achieved with 12 balls remaining, giving Guyana their third win of the tournament.
Earlier in the day, fast bowler Celina Whyte took 2-11 from her allotted four overs – removing Sheneta Grimmond for six and fellow opener Katana Mentore for two but Campbelle and Gajnabi combined to dominate.
When Jamaica batted captain Stafanie Taylor led the way again with 48 off 49 balls with five fours and one six, as the Jamaicans reached 109-6 from their 20 overs after they won the toss and chose to bat.
Taylor added 55 for the second wicket with Keneshia Ferron (20) and put on 32 for the third wicket with Natasha McLean (27), but their effort was never going to be enough to seriously challenge Guyana. Seam bowler Cherry-Ann Fraser was the pick of the bowlers with 3-18 from three overs.
In the day’s second encounter, Trinidad & Tobago secured a six-wicket win over the Leeward Islands.
Divya Saxena (37) and Jahzara Claxton (36) led the way for the Leewards as they made 120-5 off their 20 overs batting first.
Off-spinner Anisa Mohammed took a pair of wickets in her four overs while conceding only 21 runs while Kirbyina Alexander took 2-15 from three.
Trinidad & Tobago then reached 121-4 with 14 balls to spare thanks to a solid all-round batting effort including contributions from Shunelle Sawh (26), Britney Cooper (21*), Shalini Samaroo (20) and Anisa Mohammed (19*).
The day’s third game saw Super 50 champions Barbados score a dramatic four-wicket win over the Windward Islands off the last ball of the match.
Qiana Joseph led the way with a run-a-ball 50 while Malika Edward contributed 20 as the Windwards posted 128-8 off their 20 overs.
Pacers Shamilia Connell and Allison Gordon led the way with the ball for Barbados with 3-16 and 2-20 from their respective four over spells.
The successful Barbados chase was then led by the Knight sisters with Kycia getting 49 at the top of the innings and Kyshona getting 19* including the winning runs. Naijanni Cumberbatch also contributed a crucial 22 as Barbados ended up 121-6 off their 20 overs.
Zaida James took 2-27 from her four overs for the Windwards.
With one round of matches left, Guyana and Barbados are currently level on 12 points with Barbados at the top via head-to-head record. They are followed by the Windwards (8), Trinidad & Tobago (8), Jamaica (8) and the Leewards (0).
On Saturday, Jamaica will take on the Windward Islands, Barbados will face the Leewards and Guyana will face Trinidad & Tobago.
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