Triple gold medallist Shanoya Douglas was on Monday named the winner of the Austin Sealy award for the most outstanding athlete at the 53rd staging of the Carifta Games in St George’s, Grenada.

The 18-year-old Jamaican broke her one week old national junior 200m record when she ran 22.11 seconds (1.9m/s) to capture back-to-back Under-20 sprint double titles at the regional games.

Douglas became the second straight Jamaican to win the prestigious award after Kamari Kennedy won it last year and the 19th overall since it was first presented in 1977.

Douglas, who won the girls’ Under-20 100m on Saturday and anchored the Jamaican team to gold in the 4x100m relay on Sunday, broke the Jamaican national record 22.36 seconds she had set at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships.

In addition to extending her world Under-20 lead, she also broke the Carifta record 22.77 seconds set in 2013 by Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas and tied American Allyson Felix as the third fastest Under-20 female ever, trailing only Namibia’s Christine Mboma- 21.78 seconds set in 2021 and American JaMeesia Ford’s 22.08 seconds set in June 2024.
-Paul A Reid