THE fourth annual Yardie Sports Women in Sports Conference will be held at Hotel Four Seasons today starting at 10:00 am, under the theme ‘Women breaking through barriers’.

Since the inaugural staging in 2020 the conference has served to highlight some of the performances of Jamaica’s outstanding women in sport, including on the field of play, administration, and in many other areas.

Dwayne Richards, CEO of Yardie Sports, is expecting an explosive summer of sporting action that Jamaica will be a part of and is backing the various teams to be quite successful.

“This year, especially, is anticipated to be a massive year in sport for women as this summer Jamaica will be making back-to-back appearances at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand; challenging for top honours at the Netball World Cup in South Africa; as well as competing at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, where we are once again expected to dominate in the sprints. All of this will be happening in the space of five weeks.

“We feel the need to give focus to our women in sport as they climb to higher heights and achieve even greater levels of success on their way to inspiring the next generation of Jamaica’s female superstars in sport,” said Richards.

Shanieka Ricketts, the Commonwealth Games triple jump gold medallist and World Championships silver medallist from 2022; Karen Anderson, president of the Jamaica Squash Association; and Tricia Robinson, president of Netball Jamaica, will be among the presenters at the conference.

“We think that we have a stellar line-up of women to present at this year’s conference, and we are certain that those who attend in person and those who watch online on our various platforms — including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram — will be thoroughly entertained,” Richards said.

Women who have been honoured include outstanding contributors to netball such as Molly Rhone, Marva Bernard and Connie Francis; Alia Atkinson from swimming; Vilma Charlton from athletics ;and Sylvia Grant from Paralympics.

This year Lorna Bell of Special Olympics Jamaica and Carol Cuffley of Swimming & Athletics are the honorees.

In addition to the individual speakers there will also be a panel discussion featuring some of the top junior athletes from various sports including, swimming, netball, football and track and field.

The sponsors of the conference are the Sports Development Foundation, Excelsior Biscuit Company, Cumax Wealth Management, Ensure Max Protein, Recycling Partners of Jamaica, Tank-Weld Metals, Special Kreations, CityFusion Limited, and WATA.