-Morgan, Straker, Bryan, Khan, Lowe, Ramdhani, Mohamed, Thompson among awardees
Senior Sportswoman-of-the-Year, Dawn Barker
West Indies leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo and phenomenal powerlifter Dawn Barker were adjudged Senior Sportsman and Sportswoman-of-the-Year respectively when a National Sports Commission panel met last Friday to deliberate on the top performers of 2011.
Bishoo edged out powerlifter Randolph Morgan, while Barker won the award ahead of table-tennis player Trenace Lowe. On the junior side, table-tennis prodigy Nigel Bryan and talented Flyweight boxer Imran Khan copped the joint Junior Sportsman-of-the- Year award, while on the distaff side, 10-year-old badminton player Priyanna Ramdhani won ahead of athlete Jevina Straker.
Long-serving cycling coach and administrator, Hassan Mohamed, won the Coach-of-the-Year accolade, while the Sports Team-of-the-Year was the senior national football team, the ‘Golden Jaguars.’
Guyana Cycling Federation president, Cheryl Thompson, got the judges’ nod for the Female Sports Personality of the Year, while journalist and acting president of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), Franklin Wilson, and Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) president, Henry Greene, came in for honourable mention on the male side. The Sports Association of 2011 is the GTTA; the Most Improved Association is the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF), while the Delroy Sookram won the Person With Disability award.
Kaieteur News’ Edison Jefford won the Journalist-of-the-Year (Print); Guyana Times/TVG’s Avenash Ramzan won the Non-Print award, while Stabroek News’ Orlando Charles walked away with the Photographer-of-the-Year accolade.
Speaking to this publication from Dominica where he is representing Guyana in the opening round of the West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Regional Four-Day competition against the Leeward Islands, the 26-year-old Bishoo said he is pleased to be recognised for his efforts. “I feel really, really good winning the award, because last year I was the runner-up, so I’m very happy that I’ve won it this year. This is motivation for me because I want to keep on improving in my game,” Bishoo related.
The right-arm bowler, who has picked up 39 wickets from 10 Tests at an average of 36.23 and 20 wickets from 13 One-Day Internationals at 23.80 apiece, made his international debut in March last year and has been enjoying a great start to his career.
In September last, he was named the Emerging Player-of-the-Year for 2011 at the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Awards ceremony in London.
Linden-based national representative, Barker, became the first Guyanese woman to squat over 500lbs. Barker, competing in the Women Open 84+ kg Class (Squat 501.63lbs in March and 523.8lbs in July), created Caribbean history by becoming the first Commonwealth record holder from the region within her weight group. She ended the year ranked 13th in the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) Women’s Open 84+ kg Class; fourth at Commonwealth and second in South America.
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