NASSAU, Bahamas – World sprint champions Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce copped the major titles as Jamaica won five of the six categories in the second Annual Caribbean Sports Awards, organized by the Caribbean Sports Journalists’ Association (CASJA).
Bolt was unanimously chosen as Sportsman of the Year, beating Paralympic athlete Akeem Stewart of Trinidad and Tobago and O’Dayne Richards of Jamaica.
Bolt successfully defended his titles in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing last August. The Jamaican sprinter clocked a world-leading time of 19.55 seconds when winning the 200m and he now owns 17 gold medals from senior global championships.
Stewart won two gold medals at the Parapan Am Games in Toronto where he set world records in both the discus (63.03m) and javelin (53.36m) events in the F44 categories while Richards won Jamaica’s first ever World Championship medal in a throwing event, taking bronze in the shot put at the IAAF World Championships.
Other contenders were Kirani James (Athletics) of Grenada and Machel Cedenio (Athletics) and George Bovell (Swimming) of Trinidad and Tobago.
The judges chose Fraser-Pryce for Sportswoman of the Year from a list of 11 nominees including runners-up Yarisley Silva of Cuba and Alia Atkinson of Jamaica.
Fraser-Pryce continued her sprint dominance to win gold medals in the 100m and 4x100m in Beijing including anchoring Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team in a championship record time of 41.07.
Silva won the pole vault gold medals at the Pan American Games and then rebounded from near elimination to clear 4.90m for the podium in Beijing.
Atkinson became the first Black woman to win a world swimming title when she triumphed in the 100m breaststroke at the world short-course championships in Doha last December and then claimed the bronze in the 100m breaststroke at the long course World Championships in Kazan, Russia. She won silver in the same event at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.