media_artricles :: 2015

Cedenio and Ahye among Casja Awards nominees

Nominees for the 2015 Caribbean Sports Journalists' Association (Casja) Awards were revealed on Wednesday.

There are 44 nominees in six categories including Jamaican triple world record holder Usain Bolt and compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the double Olympian and triple world 100 metres champion.

The list of nominees—chosen by regional sports journalists—comes from the Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Grenada, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and spans athletics, cricket, cycling, football, swimming and volleyball. A regional panel of six--Tonique Williams-Darling, Shaka Hislop, Vernon Springer, Terry Finisterre, Ato Boldon and Kayon Raynor—will choose the winners.

Bolt heads the list of nominees for the Sportsman of the Year where he is up against Kirani James of Grenada (Athletics), O'Dayne Richards of Jamaica (Athletics) and Akeem Stewart (Para-Athletics), Machel Cedenio (Athletics) and George Bovell (Swimming) of Trinidad and Tobago. Bolt retained his 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China in August.

Fraser-Pryce is one of 11 nominees for the Sportswoman of the Year award which also includes compatriots Stafanie Taylor (Cricket), Alia Atkinson (Swimming) and Danielle Williams (Athletics).

The other nominees are Yarisley Silva and Denia Caballero (Athletics) of Cuba, Akela Jones (Athletics) of Barbados, Shaunae Miller (Athletics) of Bahamas and track and field athletes Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Michelle-Lee Ahye and Cleopatra Borel of T&T.

Jamaica's quartet of Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell, Nickel Ashmeade and Bolt head the nominations in the Male Team of the Year category. They set a world-leading time of 37.36 seconds to win the 4x100m gold at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing. They are being challenged by T&T's 4x400m relay team who won gold at the Pan American Games in Toronto and copped the silver in Beijing; the Jamaica Senior Men's National Football team (Reggae Boyz), the beaten finalists in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament in the United States; and the national cricket and beach volleyball teams of Barbados and T&T, respectively.

Teams representing athletics, cricket and football are also nominated in the Female Team of the Year category. The panel will have a star-studded field of nominees including the 4x100m relay team of Veronica Campbell-Brown, Natasha Morrison, Elaine Thompson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who won the gold in Beijing in a championship record 41.07 seconds, and Shericka Jackson, Christine Day, Stephenie Ann McPherson and Novlene Williams-Mills who won the 4x400m relay gold in a world leading time of 3:19.13.

Also included are the T&T team of Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Michelle-Lee Ahye, Reyare Thomas and Semoy Hackett who copped World Championship bronze in the 4x100m relay in a new national record time of 42.03 seconds and the Jamaica Netball team (Sunshine Girls) who finished fourth at the Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia. The West Indies Women's Cricket team, who defeated the touring Pakistan Women 3-1 in the One Day Internationals and 3-0 in the Twenty20 International (T20I) Series, and the Trinidad and Tobago National Senior and Under-20 Football teams are nominated as well.

There are nine nominees for the Male Rising Star award. Maykel Masso (Athletics) of Cuba, Akeem Bloomfield (Athletics) of Jamaica, Jeffrey Gibson (Athletics) of the Bahamas, Kraigg Brathwaite (Cricket) of Barbados, Christian Marsden (Open Water Swimming) and Akil Campbell (Cycling) of T&T, and Christopher Taylor (Athletics) of Jamaica are joined by Cedenio and Richards, who were nominated for the Sportsman of the Year. Rising T&T track star Khalifa St Fort, Williams (nominated for Sportswoman of the Year), Yulenmis Aguilar (Athletics) of Cuba, Shericka Jackson (Athletics) of Jamaica and Kelly-Ann Arrindell (Sailing) and Thema Williams (Gymnastics) of T&T are the nominees in the Female Rising Star of the Year category.

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