Kineke Alexander sprints off with Athlete of the Year

Sprinter Kineke Alexander led her other competitors by some distance, as she sprinted off with the accolade of Athlete of the Year, when Team Athletics SVG staged its award ceremony last Saturday.{{more}}

There was no dissenting voice when her name was announced at Frenches House in Kingstown. It was the second hold of the award in a row for the 28-year-old Alexander, who campaigns in the United States of America.

Before gaining the top award, Alexander was the choice for Senior Female Athlete of the Year. During 2014, Alexander gained gold in the 200 and 400 metres at the OECS Invitational held in St Kitts.

Also, she reached the final of the 400 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, the Central America and Caribbean Games in Mexico and the Pan Am Festival, also held in Mexico.

During the year, Alexander attained her personal bests in the 60m dash indoor in Houston, Texas, and in the 400m, returning times of 7.34 seconds and 51.23 seconds, respectively.

Additionally, a new meet record was set by her in the Reville Indoor Invitational in the USA in the 200 metres, lowering the previous record of 23.72 seconds to 23.65 seconds.

Whilst Alexander in absence took the spotlight last Saturday, there were others who collected individual accolades.

Junior Female Athlete of the Year

Taking the Junior Female Athlete of the Year award was Deslorn Lawrence.

A student of the St Joseph’s Convent Kingstown, Lawrence won the 100, 200 and 400 metres, thereby copping the Senior Division title, at her school’s inter-house championships.

She went on the capture the Intermediate Champion accolade at the Inter Secondary Schools’ Championships, in which she set, then broke the 100m Intermediate record.

Lawrence placed second in the 100m of Category C at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China.

Junior Male Athlete of the Year

Javon Rawlins, a student of the St Vincent Grammar School, won the Intermediate high jump at that institution’s inter-house championships, and repeated the feat at the Inter-secondary Schools Championships.

Representing his school at the National Teams Championships, Rawlins won the high jump.

Regionally, he took the gold medal in the Under-15 high jump at the Caribbean Union of Teachers Games in Trinidad and placed second in the Juvenile category at the Grenada National Championships.

Senior Male Athlete of the Year

Pamenos Ballantyne added another Senior Male Athlete of the Year title to his collection.

Under his belt, Ballantyne won the LOG Enterprises Sion Hill Sprint, the 1,500m and 5,000m at the National Club Championships and the Rose Hall to Petit Bordel road race.

Regionally, Ballantyne claimed the first place at the Venture 5k road race in Trinidad.

Other awards

Taking the Coach of the Year title was Michael Ollivierre, with Newman Peters adjudged the Most Promising Athlete for 2014, in which he received the Calvert Woods trophy.

Mocasa Bowman copped the Talent ID trophy – the Stuart Louie award, while Joonyah Garrick was named the Volunteer of the Year and Suzanna Leigertwood-Ollivierre, the Technical Official of the Year.

Winning the Club of the Year award was IT-DAT.

“Building Strong Communities Through Sports” was the theme of last Saturday’s ceremony. (RT)