2016 national sports personalities named

Cricketer Kesrick Williams and distance athlete Linda Mc Dowall were last Saturday night named Senior Sportsman and Senior sportswoman respectively, when the 2016 National Lotteries Authority National Sports Awards, organized by the National Sports Council, took place at the SVG Community College’s auditorium.

Taking the Junior Sportsman of the Year was cricketer Gidron Pope and the Junior Sportswoman of the Year – swimmer Shne Joachim.

Kesrick Williams

Williams was also named in the CPL XI and won the award for the Best Catch in the competition.

He earned a place on the West Indies 20/20 team that faced Pakistan in the UAE last September, taking 2 for 15 in his team’s last of three matches.

Additionally, also in October, Williams was part of the West Indies A ODI team that played against Sri Lanka A in Sri Lanka and he crowned it off with a contract to play in the Bangladesh Premier League.

Williams won the Michael Findlay Regional Male Cricketer of the Year award at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association Inc’s awards ceremony.

Linda Mc Dowall

Running for her club IT- DAT Academy, Mc Dowall took gold in the 800m, 1,500m and 3,000m, and was named the Top Female Senior Athlete at the Grenada National Championships.

Mc Dowall was the first woman to cross the finish line at the 12th edition of the Caricom 10k road race, which took place in Guyana, clocking 37 minutes 57 seconds, which was her best in the event, having debuted in 2013.

She crowned off the year by taking the NACAC Chatoyer 10k in November – from Gordon Yard to the Chateaubelair Playing Field. Her winning time was 47 minutes 53.60 seconds.

Gidron Pope

Pope’s efforts helped the West Indies lift the ICC Youth World Cup for the first time in February, 2016, in Bangladesh.

An explosive left-handed opening batsman, Pope scored 232 runs at an average of 38.66 and took seven wickets at the cost of 23.14 runs each. He was named in the tournament’s World XI.

During the year, Pope made his first class debut, playing for the Windwards Volcanoes in the regional West Indies Cricket Board Professional Cricket League.

Also, Pope played three matches for the St Lucia Zouks in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and had the best economy rate for all bowlers.

Pope, at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association awards ceremony, won the Winston Davis award, that of International Cricketer of the Year and the Clarence Paddy Thomas Youth Cricketer of the Year.

Shné Joachim

Shné Joachim won seven gold medals at the OECS Championships, as St Vincent and the Grenadines hosted the event for the first time. She topped the 15 to 17 age group. She also won gold in Caribbean Islands Swim Championships, held in The Bahamas, in the 50m breaststroke.

Shné qualified for the finals in all her other races, winning bronze in the 100m breaststroke and placed a close fourth in the 50m freestyle event, in yet another personal best time.

At the Carifta championships in Martinique, Shné won bronze in the 50m breaststroke event.

At the Rio Olympics in Brazil, Shné, who competed in heat two of the women’s 100m breaststroke, finished seventh in a time of 1 minute 17.37 seconds.

This placed her 38th overall of the 44 competitors who were listed in the event.

Joachim swam 32.43 seconds in the 50m breaststroke at the13th FINA World Championships, which turned out to be a new St Vincent and the Grenadines record.