Bolt, Brigitte win
ORGANISERS of the 49th staging of the RJR Sports Foundation were given a scare when some members of Jamaica’s victorious male and female sprint relay teams did not show on time to collect their special awards at last night’s function at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.
The glitzy nationally-televised ceremony started promptly at 7:30 pm.
The alarm was precipitated by reports earlier in the week that athletes were planning to boycott the function over the organisers’ choice of Jamaican-born American athlete Sanya Richards as guest speaker.
Those fears were later allayed after some frantic phones calls and the bulk of the athletes, including eventual Sportsman and Sportswoman of the year Usain Bolt and Brigitte Foster-Hylton, arrived minutes before 8:00 pm.
Meanwhile, double sprint world record-holder Bolt and 100m hurdles World champion Foster-Hylton obliged at last night’s ceremony.
Bolt, who dominated the Berlin World Championships by winning gold in the 100 and 200 metres in world record times of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds, and was a part of Jamaica’s victorious 4x100m relay team, easily retained the male trophy.
However, it was much closer on the women’s side.
Veteran sprint hurdler Foster-Hylton out-leaned her MVP clubmates — last year’s joint winner 400m hurdler Melaine Walker and 100m world champion Shelly Ann Fraser — for her third hold on the trophy following 2002 and 2003.
Foster-Hylton, who clocked 12.51seconds to secure Jamaica’s first gold in the 100m hurdles, won seven races on the European circuit, including the IAAF’s World Athletics final in Greece.
It was tough luck for Fraser and Walker, who both won individual gold medals in national record times of 10.73 (100m) and 52.42 (400m hurdles) seconds in Berlin.
Last Friday, Fraser was named the JAAA’s Female Athlete of the Year for winning gold in the 100m and 4x100m relays.
Walker, who won the 400m hurdles gold in a championship record of 52.42 secs, also won the IAAF’s World Athletics final in Greece.
In the meantime, Bolt also walked away with the ‘People’s Choice Performance of the Year Award’ for his 100m victory, ahead of Foster-Hylton’s groundbreaking run in the hurdles.
