Track ath­lete Jereem Richards and crick­eter Kar­ish­ma Ramharack cap­tured the 2024 First Cit­i­zens Sports Foun­da­tion "Sports­man of the Year" and "Sports­woman of the Year" ac­co­lades when the 62nd edi­tion of the na­tion­al sports awards func­tion was held at the Hy­att Re­gency, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain on Jan­u­ary 11.

While the win came as no sur­prise for Richards, as he claimed his fourth such ac­co­lade by adding to his pre­vi­ous wins in 2017, 2018 and 2022, for Ramharack, it was her first lien on the women's award and the first for the sport of crick­et since for­mer West In­dies bats­man Bri­an Lara won the last of his awards in 2005.

At the Paris Olympic Games, Richards was a fourth-placed fin­ish­er in the men's 400 me­tres fi­nal. He took the lead on the back­stretch and split 20.46 sec­onds with three of his chal­lengers be­fore hav­ing to set­tle for fourth spot in the end with a T&T na­tion­al record time of 43.78 sec­onds, be­hind the USA’s gold medal­list Quin­cy Hall (43.40), run­ner-up Matthew Hud­son-Smith of Great Britain (43.44) and Zam­bian third-place fin­ish­er Muza­la Samukon­ga (43.74).

In spite of this bit­ter­sweet episode, Richards can al­so look back proud­ly up­on a se­mi-fi­nal per­for­mance at the World Ath­let­ics In­door Cham­pi­onships in Glas­gow, plus third-place fin­ish­es at the Di­a­mond League meet­ings in Lon­don (44.18) and Rome (44.55), along with a 200m vic­to­ry (20.19) in Luzern on the Con­ti­nen­tal Tour’s sil­ver lev­el.

Hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly op­er­at­ed in tan­dem with her great coun­try­woman, Anisa Mo­hammed, right-arm off-spin­ner Ramharack stepped in­to the spot­light fol­low­ing Mo­hammed’s re­tire­ment at the start of 2024, and she rev­elled in a se­ries of stand-out dis­plays over the year.

At the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup in the UAE, Ramharack helped West In­dies to the se­mi-fi­nals of the com­pe­ti­tion with her six to­tal wick­ets cap­tured at an av­er­age of 13.83.

Her best per­for­mance came against Bangladesh at Shar­jah, where she claimed four scalps for 17 runs, which led to an eight-wick­et vic­to­ry and the "Play­er of the Match" prize.

Ramharack was al­so out­stand­ing dur­ing the One Day In­ter­na­tion­al se­ries in Pak­istan and Sri Lan­ka: dur­ing the for­mer con­test, she took four wick­ets, with a three for 48 act in a two-wick­et tri­umph at Karachi; the lat­ter show­down again in­volved four wick­ets, with two for 29 cap­tured in the sec­ond game at Ham­ban­to­ta.

Among the Youth Awards, the sport of cy­cling dom­i­nat­ed with Je­lani Nedd and Makaira Wal­lace tak­ing home the Youth Sports­man of the Year and Sports­woman of the Year awards, re­spec­tive­ly.

At the UCI Ju­nior Track World Cham­pi­onships in Lu­oyang, Chi­na, Nedd es­tab­lished a new ju­nior men’s na­tion­al record of 10.093 sec­onds for the Fly­ing 200, the qual­i­fy­ing phase of the sprint event.

By the end of the Pan Amer­i­can Ju­nior Cham­pi­onships in Li­ma, Pe­ru, he had claimed sil­ver medals in the in­di­vid­ual sprint and the team sprint. At home at the T&T Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion (T&TCF) Cham­pi­onships, Nedd won the na­tion­al Un­der-23 sprint ti­tle.

At the UCI Ju­nior World Cham­pi­onships, Wal­lace claimed a pair of sil­ver medals in the women’s 500m time tri­al and the keirin, an ex­cel­lent fol­low-up to the Pan Am Ju­niors, where she took sec­ond po­si­tion in the sprint.

With a na­tion­al record of 11.361 sec­onds along the way, plus the 500m time tri­al, she was a bronze medal­list in the keirin, with an­oth­er na­tion­al record of 10.874 in­volved.

Sat­ur­day's func­tion al­so saw the 2025 Hall of Fame In­duc­tion of for­mer crick­eter Samuel Badree and for­mer track and field ath­lete, now coach Wen­dell Williams.

The sport of hock­ey was al­so recog­nised on the night as the Lystra Lewis "Team of the Year" award was cap­tured by the Akim Tou­s­saint-led T&T men's hock­ey5s which qual­i­fied for the Oman World Cup last year.

With the theme “The Pow­er of Per­se­ver­ance,” the awards show­cased the re­silience, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and un­yield­ing spir­it of ath­letes who tri­umphed over chal­lenges to achieve great­ness. From awe-in­spir­ing come­backs to ground-break­ing per­for­mances, the nom­i­nees em­bod­ied the true heart of sports­man­ship.

“At First Cit­i­zens, we are proud to stand stead­fast­ly be­hind the work of the First Cit­i­zens Sports Foun­da­tion, ho­n­our­ing the past, sup­port­ing the present, and equip­ping the fu­ture of sport,” said An­tho­ny I. Smart, chair­man of First Cit­i­zens.

“Suc­cess de­mands prepa­ra­tion, hard work and of­ten, pa­tience — and in those times, we per­se­vere.”

Smart urged those present that as part­ners in sport to, "let us all re­solve to iden­ti­fy how we can serve sports bet­ter and en­deav­our to con­sis­tent­ly do so".

He added, "But let us al­so be fair enough to ap­pre­ci­ate that suc­cess not on­ly takes prepa­ra­tion and hard work but quite of­ten, pa­tience."

David Roberts, per­ma­nent sec­re­tary - Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, con­grat­u­lat­ed the awardees and thanked them for their out­stand­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the red, white, and black on the glob­al stage.

Ho­n­our roll:

Sports­man of the Year: Jereem Richards (ath­let­ics)

Sports­woman of the Year: Kar­ish­ma Ramharack (women’s crick­et)

Youth Sports­man of the Year: Je­lani Nedd (cy­cling)

Youth Sports­woman of the Year: Makaira Wal­lace (cy­cling)

Lystra Lewis 'Team of the Year' award: T&T Hock­ey 5's World Cup Team

Hall of Fame In­ductees: Samuel Badree (crick­et), Wen­dell Williams (ath­let­ics) - ath­lete & coach

Top Ten Youth Sports Awards nom­i­nees:

Je­lani Nedd (cy­cling), Liam Car­ring­ton (aquat­ics), Kadeem Chi­napoo (ath­let­ics), Zuri Fer­gu­son (aquat­ics),

Makaira Wal­lace (cy­cling), Janae De Gannes (ath­let­ics), Chloe Fras­er (ta­ble ten­nis), Zara La Fleur (chess), Ethan Ram­cha­ran (bad­minton), Bren­dan Boodoo (crick­et).

Top Ten Se­nior Sports Awards nom­i­nees:

Dy­lan Carter (aquat­ics), Nicholas Pooran (crick­et), Teague Mar­cano (hock­ey), Akeem Stew­art (para-ath­let­ic), Nicholas Paul (cy­cling), Jereem Richards (ath­let­ics), Leah Bertrand (ath­let­ics), Kar­ish­ma Ramharack (crick­et), Zuri Fer­gu­son (aquat­ics), Te­niel Camp­bell (cy­cling).