PARIS 2024 Olympic Games medal winners Roje Stona and Shanieka Ricketts were the pick of the bunch at Friday night’s RJRGLEANER National Sportsman & Sportswoman of the Year Awards at Jamaica Pegasus hotel, walking away with the top awards, as track and field athletes continue to dominate the island’s most prestigous sporting awards.

It was the first sportsman and sportswoman of the year awards for the respective recipients.

The pair was largely expected to top the honours after their exploits in the French capital where Stona shocked the world, producing the biggest throw in Olympic history — 70.00m, to top the podium in the discus event. He became Jamaica’s first gold medal winner in any field event at the Olympic Games and is also responsible for the island’s first Olympic medal of any kind in the event.

Ricketts, a seasoned and consistent performer on the global stage, secured her first medal at the Olympic Games, winning silver in the Women’s Triple Jump with a 14.87m effort, which placed her behind Dominica’s Thea LaFond, 15.02m and with the USA’s Jasmine Moore, 14.67m, taking the bronze.

Ricketts was Jamaica’s only female medal winner at the Games and was the overwhelming favourite for the top prize coming into the event.

Other male nominees included 100m silver medallist Kishane Thompson, who capped his season with a podium finish on the biggest stage. Thompson also ended 2024 with the fastest time in the world, after clocking 9.77 seconds at the National Senior Championships.

Paris 2024 medal winners Wayne Pinnock, who won silver in the Men’s Long Jump with a leap of 8.36m, and bronze medallists Rasheed Broadbell in the 110m Hurdles and Rajindra Campbell in the Shot Put were also among the list of men’s nominees, as were World Indoor Championships 60m bronze medal winner Ackeem Blake; Rusheen McDonald, the 400m bronze medallist at the World Indoor Championships; and Olympic Long Jump finalist Carey McLeod.

On the women’s side, the other nominees were national 400m Hurdles champion and Paris Olympic Games finalist Rushell Clayton; national 100m Hurdles record holder Ackera Nugent; national 400m record holder Nickisha Pryce; and Llori Sharpe, who won gold in the Women’s Road Race category at the Elite Caribbean Cycling Championships in Guyana.

Track and field athletes have won every National Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year award since 2019 (no awards ceremony held in 2020 due to COVID-19), with Antonio Watson and Shericka Jackson winning the 2023 awards.

Of the 63 national sportsman and sportswoman awards that have each been issued since 1961, track and field athletes have accounted for 55 awards on the women’s side with 34 among the males.