RJRGLEANER Sportsman, Sportswoman of the Year awards up for grabs
Published:Friday | January 17, 2025 | 12:09 AMGregory Bryce/Staff Reporter
The prestigious RJRGLEANER Sports Foundation National Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Awards Gala will be held tonight at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel.
Track and field athletes have, as usual, dominated the awards this year, as 12 of the 13 nominees are from the sport, with the other coming from cycling.
In the men’s category, the eight-man nominee list is headlined by the reigning Olympic discus champion Roje Stona. Stona is viewed as a strong favourite to walk away with the Sportsman of the Year award, after his brilliant performance at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games when he won Jamaica’s only gold medal at the international competition.
His throw of 70 metres was not only the gold-medal winning distance, Jamaica’s first gold medal in a throwing event, but he also smashed the previous record of 69.97m held by silver medallist Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania.
In the race for the Sportsman of the Year award, Stona will face competition from Jamaica’s newest sprint sensation Kishane Thompson, who won silver in the men’s 100m final at the Paris Games.
Thompson ended 2024 with a new personal best of 9.77 seconds, last year’s world lead which placed him within the top 10 fastest men of all time over the distance.
Also in contention are men’s 110m hurdles bronze medallist Rasheed Broadbell, long jumpers, Paris silver medallist Wayne Pinnock and Carey McLeod, shot put bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell, and sprinters Ackeem Blake and Rusheen McDonald.
CLOSE RACE
It will be close for the Sportswoman of the Year award. The five nominees are 400m hurdler Rushell Clayton, sprint hurdler Ackera Nugent, 400m runner Nickisha Pryce, triple jumper Shanieka Ricketts, and cyclist Llori Sharpe.
Nugent has undoubtedly thrown her name in the ring, as she is coming off an impressive 2024 calendar year.
Following her disappointment after falling in the final of the women’s 100m hurdles at the Paris Games, Nugent proved her pedigree by setting a new national record in her event, twice.
Her first mark of 12.28 seconds had eclipsed the previous record of 12.31 set by Britany Anderson. Nugent would then smash her own record with a new time of 12.24 in August last year.
Also in strong contention is Ricketts, who won her first Olympic medal when she placed second in the women’s triple jump with a leap of 14.87m.
Sharpe, the only non-track and field athlete nominated, also boasts an historic 2024 campaign, as she became the first Jamaican woman to win gold in the Elite Women’s Road Race at the 2024 Caribbean Cycling Championships.
Speaking ahead of the awards, Mike Fennell, chairman of the selection panel, said all 13 athletes were selected based on the merits of their achievements in 2024.
“We have to maintain our standards and we must recognise those who perform at the highest level. We should never water down that recognition, as we have such a long list of athletes who performed so well,” he said at the event’s launch earlier last month.
The live show for the award ceremony is set to start at 8:30 p.m.