Sean Nero

World Cham­pi­onship hur­dler Je­hue Gor­don con­tin­ued his win­ning ways on a week­end awash with ma­jor sport­ing pre­sen­ta­tions, cap­tur­ing the pres­ti­gious Sports­man of the Year ti­tle, at Sun­day's T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) Awards Cer­e­mo­ny, held at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts in Port-of-Spain.Twen­ty-four hours be­fore, a vis­i­bly emo­tion­al Gor­don walked away with four Spir­it of Sport awards (SOSA) at the cer­e­mo­ny held at Queen's Hall in St Ann's, Port-of-Spain. At the TTOC's evening of ho­n­ours, Gor­don 22, in his sar­to­r­i­al el­e­gance, cruised in­to the spot­light to thun­der­ous ap­plause to re­ceive his ho­n­our from Pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Car­mona. His Ex­cel­len­cy was ac­com­pa­nied by TTOC pres­i­dent Bri­an Lewis for the pre­sen­ta­tion.The nod by the TTOC did not come as a sur­prise to the Gor­don, who came pre­pared with a speech. Gor­don won gold at the IAAF World Cham­pi­onships held in Moscow, Rus­sia.

But shot put­ter Cleopa­tra Borel's vote for Sports­woman of the Year Award, how­ev­er, came as a sur­prise to the ath­lete. Reema Car­mona, wife of the His Ex­cel­len­cy made the pre­sen­ta­tion.

It took some time for Borel, while at the podi­um, to com­pose her­self. She was in shock!Dur­ing her ac­cep­tance speech, Borel ex­plained her re­ac­tion and de­clared that the last sea­son was not her best. Their feats, how­ev­er, made it a good night for track and field. But swim­ming was not to be out done, cap­tur­ing three awards at the high pro­file cer­e­mo­ny.Dy­lan Carter's sil­ver medal win in the 50-me­tre but­ter­fly at the FI­NA World Ju­nior Swim­ming Cham­pi­onships in Dubai, Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, in a time of 23.98 earned him the Ju­nior Sports­man of the Year ti­tle.

Mean­while, Par­a­lympic swim­mer Shan­ntol Ince got the TTOC Ju­nior Sports­woman of the Year ti­tle. Her mul­ti­ple gold medal win at the 2013 Youth Para Pan Amer­i­can Games held in Buenos Aires, Ar­genti­na–100m back­stroke, 400m freestyle, 100m but­ter­fly and 100m freestyle–made her a prime can­di­date for this ho­n­our.

Olympic medal­list George Bovell III was named as the TTOC's Sport Per­son­al­i­ty of the Year. This was al­so a bril­liant year for the dy­nam­ic swim­mer who copped bronze in the 50m freestyle at the FI­NA World Cham­pi­onships in Barcelona in a na­tion­al record time of 21.51, as well as one gold (100IM) and two bronze (50mfree; 100IM) medals at FI­NA World Cup Se­ries events in Hol­land and Ger­many.Vet­er­an foot­ball ad­min­is­tra­tor Ed­ward Hart was the re­cip­i­ent of the Alexan­der B Chap­man Award for his unswerv­ing com­mit­ment to the de­vel­op­ment of the sport.Forty-sev­en years ago, he es­tab­lished the Ed­die Hart League for foot­ball and has worked dili­gent­ly to mould not just skilled ath­letes, but bet­ter cit­i­zens, who con­tin­ue to pump new en­er­gy in­to the sport.Off the field of play, the TTOC al­so be­stowed ho­n­ours on for­mer ad­min­is­tors Dou­glas Ca­ma­cho (pres­i­dent) Sen­a­tor El­ton Prescott (gen­er­al sec­re­tary) and Alexan­der B Chap­man (pres­i­dent/gen­er­al sec­re­tary) for their con­tri­bu­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of the TTOC and sport in T&T.

Ho­n­our Roll

Sports Per­son­al­i­ty of the Year: George Bovell III

Sports­man of the Year: Je­hue Gor­don

Sports­woman of the Year: Cleopa­tra Borel

Ju­nior Sports­man of the Year: Dy­lan Carter

Ju­nior Sports­woman of the Year: Shan­ntol Ince

Alexan­der B Chap­man Re­cip­i­ent: Ed­ward Hart