Sean Nero

Je­hue Gor­don emerged as Mem­phis Pi­o­neers Ath­let­ic Club's Male Ath­lete of the Year 2013, while Dawnell Col­ly­more took the Fe­male Ath­lete of the Year ti­tle.

Gor­don, the top na­tion­al ath­lete who won gold for T&T in the 400-me­tre hur­dle event at the IAAF World Cham­pi­onships, Moscow, Rus­sia, back in Au­gust, be­fore re­peat­ing his fash­ion­able win at the Di­a­mond League in Brus­sels, Bel­gium–a month lat­er–took the spot­light at the In­ter­na­tion­al School of Port-of-Spain in West­moor­ings on Sat­ur­day.

Gor­don is ranked sec­ond in the world in the 400 me­tres hur­dle.

But while of­fi­cials at Mem­phis Pi­o­neers had no chal­lenge choos­ing which ath­lete would re­ceive this ho­n­our, they knew his award had to be ex­tra-or­di­nary.

They re­flect­ed on the style of his wins and went back to his 'gold­en dip' at the World Cham­pi­onships.

Vi­su­al artist Sun­di­a­ta (Win­ston Ian Stew­art) was then com­mis­sioned to cap­ture the mo­ment on can­vas. When the work was re­vealed the au­di­to­ri­um at the In­ter­na­tion­al School was en­er­gised with cheers.

In fact, Dr Ian Hy­po­lite Gor­don's coach ad­mit­ted that he was "to­tal­ly en­vi­ous" when he saw the fi­nal prod­uct.

In­ter­viewed, Gor­don said, "My club paved the way for where I am right now. They have shaped me in­to an all round­ed per­son and I'm just grate­ful to give back to the club, in the sense that I have lo­calised the whole set­ting. I came back home. I re­main ground­ed in my roots–Mem­phis Pi­o­neers. I'm just hap­py to come out here and rep­re­sent them and be award­ed tonight."

He added, "The past three months have been re­al­ly hec­tic. I've been in­volved in school; ex­ams es­pe­cial­ly over the past two weeks at UWI. Ex­ams have been in­tense so far. Right now it just re­lax­ation time, a lit­tle bit. My fi­nal ex­am is next week Tues­day (to­mor­row). My last ex­am is mar­ket­ing man­age­ment. Af­ter that I will be able to fo­cus a lot more on track and field."

The Awards

Ath­lete of the Year�Male

Je­hue Gor­don

Ath­lete of the Year–Fe­male

Dawnell Col­ly­more

Ath­lete of the Year–Boys Un­der 9

Keone John

Ath­lete of the Year–Girls Un­der 9

Nao­mi Pierce

Ath­lete of the Year–Girls Un­der 11

Bilquis Ab­dal-Jarim

Ath­lete of the Year–Boys Un­der 11

Ja­mali Lynch

Ath­lete of the Year–Girls Un­der 13

Jeneil Mor­ris

Ath­lete of the Year–Boys Un­der 13

Shaquan Bap­tiste

Ath­lete of the Year–Girls Un­der 15

Sha­nia Mc Carter

Ath­lete of the Year–Boys Un­der 15

Clement Camp­bell

Ath­lete of the Year–Girls Un­der 18

Jem­i­nise Par­ris

Ath­lete of the Year–Boys Un­der 18

Kadeem Camp­bell

Ath­lete of the Year–Boys Un­der 20

Reubin Wal­ters