media_artricles :: 2014

Gordon, Jackman grateful for First Citizens titles

JEHUE GORDON and Giselle Ann Jackman were both grateful for their successes on Friday night, after they were named as the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year at the First Citizens Sports Foundation 2013 Awards at Queen’s Hall, St Clair.

The 22-year-old Gordon won the men’s 400-metre hurdles final at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, Russia, in a time of 47.69 seconds.

“My reward is that intrinsic satisfaction that I feel at the end of the day, knowing that I’ve given of my best and know that I’m able to inspire the younger ones to try and aspire to be like me or even better than Jehue Gordon,” he said. “Right now I’m in school (at UWI, St Augustine).

“This award is a gift towards everything that I’ve been doing so far, my team, especially, who’ve been there for me from the start,” he continued. “So it’s not really about me embracing this moment, but it’s been for the whole team to just be grateful to achieve such an award.”

This year, Gordon will be focusing mainly on the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

“For me, I want to go out there and do the best that I could be, have fun and be Jehue Gordon this year.” Gordon stated, “I always wanted to win the (First Citizens) Male Athlete of the Year. I was up on this stage in 2011, based on the 2010 season, and I won the Junior Sportsman of the Year. In 2011, I was nominated (among) the Top 10, but I was never able to win this prestigious award.

“At this point in time, I’m just happy that I won it. It’s just hard work. Competition is so stiff in Trinidad and Tobago that you’re just never guaranteed this top spot.”

The 20-year-old Jackman was a surprise choice for the Sportswoman of the Year crown and she admitted, “I didn’t expect to get this. I didn’t expect to place in the Top 10, it’s really a big shock for me basically.”

At the 2013 Pan American, North American and Caribbean Powerlifting Championships in Orlando, Florida, United States, Jackman claimed the bronze medal in the women’s 72-kilogramme class with a total lift of 330 kg, trailing Puerto Rico’s Ladys Burgos (442.5kg) and Brazil’s Judimeire Delago (395kg).

Currently pregnant, she noted, “I have a really supportive fiancé. I have my trainers and my dad right there, as soon as (I deliver and recuperate), I’m back into the sport, to compete at Nationals at the end of the year.”

Reflecting on 2013, the Chaguanas resident said, “it was the first time I travelled. That was a big experience for me, going to Orlando and placing in an international competition, meeting people from different countries. It’s been life-changing.” The former student of Saraswati Girls’ Hindu College and Hillview College, Jackman took up the sport after meeting (at Hillview) the 2012 male junior champion Sanjeev Teelucksingh.

“He introduced me to Maurice Pierre who is a bodybuilder,” she continued. “He stuck with me, and then I was introduced to the Powerlifting Federation where Marlon Belfon guided my efforts and got me right here today.”

Jackman admitted that she was happy for her accolade “because sometimes you work so hard for something and it takes so long to be rewarded.

“I’m in powerlifting for a little over two years and to accomplish placing in the Pan American Games, and to get this award, I couldn’t do that without the help of God first, and my parents (Winston and Cinty) who have put a lot of resources and time into helping me get to where I am today,” she added. Jackman made it clear that powerlifting is a sport that more TT women should get involved in.

“It’s hard that women think (that) only men can do powerlifting,” she said. “That’s why we have so few women in Trinidad and Tobago that do powerlifting and the issue lies right there.

“I think women should take it upon themselves to see the benefits of the sport. You feel good about yourself, you look good and look where it have me today. Honestly, that’s living proof that it’s a wonderful sport. Women should look at it as a co-curricular,” she ended.

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