In an attempt to bring more prominence, honour and distinction to the National Sports Awards, the Department of Youth & Sports held a press briefing last Friday at their conference room to discuss several issues pertinent to this annual event.

The media played a prominent role in the discussions which centred on nominations by associations for their top athletes, criteria for selecting the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year, Media Worker and Media House of the Year and
last but certainly not least seating arrangements for the press. You may recall last year’s boycott of the event by media workers at the STAR, Mirror, sportscaribe and HTS on account of inadequate seating arrangements. Let’s hope history does not repeat itself.

Faced with a January 21deadline for their nomination for Junior Sportsman, Junior Sportswoman, Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year, Association of the Year, Outstanding Administrators, Coaches and Media, only 15 of 25 National Associations delivered their nomination papers on time to the Department of Youth & Sports.

After receiving the nominations, a short list of nominees for the prestigious awards was officially announced at Friday’s press briefing. And the nominees are. Junior Sportsman: Swimming, Joshua Runako Daniel; Athletics, Lenyn Leonce; Cricket, Dalton Polius. Junior Sportswoman: Swimming, Siona Huxley; Athletics, Sandisha Antoine. Sportswoman: Athletics, Levern Spencer; Swimming, Danielle Beaubrun; Cricket, Maria David; Volleyball, Dania Hamilton. Sportsman: Cycling, Kurt Maraj; Athletics, Zepherinus Joseph; Swimming, Julian Brice; Cricket Darren Sammy; Table Tennis, Adrian Albert.
Nomination papers not being handed in on time is nothing new. Sad to say it’s become the norm.

Schools Curriculum Officer, Michael “Midget” Pierre said: “This has been a recurring decimal and unfortunately there is nothing in place to penalize associations for their tardiness. In truth and in fact what the associations are doing is a grave injustice to those persons who have served their association over the year as far as sports is concerned.”

The Swimming, Netball, Cricket and Athletics associations were applauded for the manner in which they presented their nomination papers.

Pierre also found it disturbing that very few associations nominated a Media House or Media Person of the Year.

“I hope this is not an indication of how associations view the media,” he said. “Getting that kind of feedback re the media is somewhat puzzling.”

The criteria and personnel for selecting Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year also came under review.

An independent committee has that responsibility, but like everything else it isn’t fool proof and there have been accusations of “preferential treatment” when it comes to judging.
In other countries, selecting the top athletes is left up to the media and while he had reservations with that procedure, Pierre had an open mind and said “this is something we could look at.”

Not only Pierre, but in fact the Department of Youth and Sports have an open mind in regarding the National Sports Awards.

He told the gathering this year the department has actually listened to the feedback and comments and for this reason, acquired an agency to assist in helping to plan and deliver a better product for Sports Awards 2009.

Following her introduction, Agnes Francis of ACCELA Marketing made it clear that it is not their intention or mandate to change the event completely, but try to establish what the vision was for the event, understand what the issues were and the things that were right and wrong. Based on that she said ACCELA would try to enhance the event.

What ACCELA will do is provide the PR for the event, create a theme, design and concept for the night and provide video profiles of the nominees. Winston Springer Jr is the MC for the evening. There will not be a guest speaker.

This is the first in a series of media briefings leading up to the 2009 National Sports Awards which has the potential for being the best ever. Let’s hope so.