Pan Amer­i­can gold medal­list Nicholas Paul was crowned Sports­man of the Year at the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee's (TTOC) an­nu­al awards cer­e­mo­ny held at the Hy­att Re­gency, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, on Fri­day night.

The award is giv­en to the ath­lete who has show­cased the most out­stand­ing per­for­mances in the cur­rent year. Paul, who al­so copped the "Peo­ple's Choice of the Year" award, showed his elite lev­el at the top three com­pe­ti­tions he par­tic­i­pat­ed in this year.

At the 2023 Pan Amer­i­can Elite Track Cy­cling Cham­pi­onships in June, Paul ped­alled to three medals, in­clud­ing two gold and one sil­ver.

The Gas­par­il­lo na­tive then claimed his first gold in the keirin event, be­fore dou­bling up with gold in the sprint, in do­ing so, he de­feat­ed Colom­bian Kevin Quin­tero for the top spot on the podi­um.

He was out­stand­ing yet again at the UCI Tis­sot World Track Cy­cling Cham­pi­onships in Glas­gow, Scot­land where the 25-year-old cap­tured sil­ver in the men’s sprint event. The per­for­mance in Glas­gow con­firmed Paul as a def­i­nite medal con­tender for the Olympic Games, which will be held next year in Paris, France.

At the San­ti­a­go2023 Pan Am Games in Chile, he won gold in the men's sprint event and a sil­ver in the keirin.

Leg­endary T&T sprint­er Michelle-Lee Ahye was again award­ed "Sports­woman of the Year". De­spite hav­ing a rough sea­son, the for­mer Olympic fi­nal­ist achieved a bronze medal fin­ish at the Pan Amer­i­can Games and holds a pos­i­tive out­look on 2024, with an eye on the Olympics in Paris.

"This year helped me to clear my men­tal is­sues. Now I'm re­al­ly ready to com­pete," said Ahye.

The ti­tle of "Ju­nior Sports­woman of the Year" was award­ed to bud­ding track star Sanaa Fred­er­ick. The 18-year-old claimed bronze in the women’s 100m at the Com­mon­wealth Youth Games, leav­ing her mark on the track.

The TTOC's "Ju­nior Sports­man of the Year" award went to Nikoli Black­man whose an­nounce­ment was greet­ed with a burst of ap­plause from those in at­ten­dance, de­spite him be­ing un­able to at­tend due to school com­mit­ments. Not on­ly did the 19-year-old win three gold medals at the Com­mon­wealth Youth Games (CYG), but he al­so won gold in the 50m at the World Aquat­ics Ju­nior Swim­ming Cham­pi­onships.

The "Sports Per­son­al­i­ty of the Year" prize was award­ed to the men's 3x3 bas­ket­ball team of twin broth­ers Ah­keel "Smal­ly" and Ah­keem "Fat­to" Boyd, Mori­ba De Fre­itas and Chike Au­gus­tine which beat Venezuela to earn a bronze medal at the Pan Amer­i­can Games.

Cy­clist Alexi Cos­ta-Ramirez took the "Fu­ture is Fe­male" award.

The fea­tured speak­er of the night was the first black woman to ever com­pete at the Tour De France, T&T cy­clist Teneil Camp­bell.

Dur­ing an emo­tion­al ad­dress, Camp­bell re­count­ed the re­silience she was forced to dis­play this sea­son af­ter en­dur­ing two very se­ri­ous in­juries af­ter crash­ing twice in 2023.

The de­ter­mined Camp­bell stressed the im­por­tance of set­ting smart goals, and end­ed her ad­dress with an en­cour­ag­ing quote, say­ing: "Your at­ti­tude will de­ter­mine your al­ti­tude."

Im­me­di­ate past pres­i­dent of the TTOC Bri­an Lewis was recog­nised for his ef­forts in the pro­gres­sion of youth sport lo­cal­ly. Name­ly his role in bring­ing the 2023 CYG to T&T.

Al­so, swim coach Lor­raine Bolan Van Druten re­ceived the Alexan­der B Chap­man Award for her con­sis­tent con­tri­bu­tion to Sport and Olympianism

HO­N­OUR ROLL

Sports­man of the Year: Nicholas Paul

Sports­woman of the Year: Michelle Lee-Ahye

Ju­nior Sports­man: Nikoli Black­man

Ju­nior Sports­woman of the Year: Sanaa Fred­er­ick

Sports Per­son­al­i­ty of the Year: 3x3 bas­ket­ball team

Peo­ple's Choice: Nicholas Paul

Fu­ture is Fe­male Award: Alexi Cos­ta-Ramirez

Spe­cial Award: Bri­an Lewis

Alexan­der B. Chap­man: Lor­raine Bolan­Van Druten