Merlene Ottey
Jamaican sprint legends Merlene Ottey and Don Quarrie were among the list of honorees at the 30th Commonwealth Sports Awards ceremony in Port- of-Spain Trinidad on the weekend.
Ottey, Quarrie and Trinidad’s Haseley Crawford and Dr Iva Gloudon were the recipients of Lifetime Achievements Awards.
Ottey has had the longest career as a top level international sprinter, which has not yet concluded as she anchored the Slovenian 4x100m team in 2012 at the age of 52.
She holds the record for the most Olympic appearances (seven) of any track and field athlete and for winning 14 medals the largest number at the World Championships.
Quarrie struck gold in the men’s 200m finals at the 1976 Olympics and took silver behind Crawford in the 100m event.
He also captured a bronze in the 200m (1980) and silver in the 4x400mr relay (1984).
Quarrie who is the athletic technical manager for the Jamaican Olympic team is also the winner of six Commonwealth Games gold medals.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Olympic gold medallist Keshorn Walcott copped the outstanding youth achiever award.
Double World Champion Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya beat out ?Sally Pearson of Australia and Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown for the outstanding female award.
Paralympic athletes Eleanor Simmonds of England and Jamaican Alphanso Cumminghamwon the outstanding female and male athlete of the year awards respectively.
Former Commonwealth Games Federation head Mike Fennell of Jamaica also won an award.
He secured the sports administrator of the year honour, ahead of Jon Doig of Scotland and Dominican Thomas Dorsett.
Kirani James who won Grenada’s first senior World Outdoor title in taking the one lap event at last year’s World Championships in Daegu, South Korea beat fellow World champions Jamaican Yohan Blake and England’s Mohammed Farah for outstanding male athlete.
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