TWO of St. Lucia’s leading female athletes and qualifiers for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics will head the list of nominees when the St.Lucia Athletics Association hosts its annual awards ceremony this.
According to the SLAA, the evening’s programme will recognize sponsors, and teams that represented the sport regionally and internationally and there will be the presentation of the prestigious awards for the Male and Female Juvenile athletes for the year, followed by the top four athletes in the Senior male and female category.
Vying for the top spot in the junior female category are last year’s winner, javelin thrower Rochelle Etienne who captured a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa and Julien Alfred who reset the record books in the ladies 200 metres. Alfred is currently attending college in Jamaica.
In the junior male category will be 2015 Carifta Games bronze medalists javelin thrower Denzel St.Marthe and high jumper Ace Louis vying for the top spot.
The senior male category will see National Invitational track and field champion javelin thrower Albert Reynolds of Elite club against long distance runner from the Road Busters Club Michael Bissette. Reynolds finished second at the Independence Games. He set a new national record at the Stade Pierre Invitational in Martinique with a throw of 72.99 metres, won gold at the Club Colonial International, captured a bronze medal at the NACAC Senior Championships where he set a National / O.E.C.S. record with a throw of 77.71 metres. Likewise, Bissette ended a successful year when he finished second in the Run Barbados half marathon last month.
In the senior women’s category, for the second consecutive year sports enthusiasts will see multiple sportswoman of the year “Levern Spencer and 2013” Junior Sportswoman of the year JeannelleScheper square off.
Both jumpers have been active on the international stage. At the Pan American Games in Canada Spencer captured the gold with a clearance of 1.94 metres and during the year also won a number of events. At the IAAF World track and field championship in Beijing, China Scheper finish 7th overall and she also cleared 1.96 metres earlier in the year. She helped the University of South Carolina track and field team become champions when she won the NCAA Outdoor high jump national title.
