Ama–Zane!

Zane Maloney topped off his 2019 season of accolades by winning the National Sports Personality of the Year at the National Sports Council (NSC) Awards on Saturday evening, at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex.

Maloney was voted the recipient of the top award by the public via social media, an innovative idea put forward by the NSC to choose the winner for the year.

The 2019 British F4 Champion and F4 Rookie Cup winner also copped the male Junior Outstanding Sportsperson award on the night, for not only equalling the record 10 wins in a season on the international circuit, but also regionally where he went unbeaten in the Caribbean Radical SR3 Cup in Guyana.

Speaking to The Barbados Advocate after the ceremony, Maloney thanked the public for their support and reiterated his goal of being not just great but remaining humble.

“It feels amazing. The junior award was great to win and then I sat down for another hour and a half, waiting to hopefully win the National Sports Personality of the Year, which we did only by three votes. I posted it on my Facebook and everyone went and voted for me. Four hundred and twenty-three votes are a lot in only a couple days, which is great. I would just like to thank the public for voting for me and I try my best always to not just do good in the sport but also be good out of the sport and be humble and be a good person as well. So I think that is why people voted for me and hopefully I continue to do everyone proud.”

Maloney topped male Senior Outstanding Sportsperson Jason Holder, who was second in the voting with 420 votes and female Senior Outstanding Sportsperson, Deandra Dottin in third with 333 votes. The win for Holder and Dottin gave cricket a clean sweep of the senior awards. For his historic golden run at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, 110m hurdler Shane Brathwaite was awarded the Minister’s Award.

The female Junior Outstanding Sportsperson was Squash player Meagan Best, who won her first Barbados Junior Women’s National Squash title in 2019. Three emerging athletes were honoured during the evening - Tenielle Chapman-Goodluck (volleyball), Dmitri Holder (volleyball) and Emily Odwin (golf).

James Wedderburn, the first Barbadian to win an Olympic medal, was honoured for his achievements and long-standing commitment to track and field over the years with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Also receiving a special award, The Courage Award, was jockey legend and race horse whisperer Patrick Husbands.

Cricketer Cheryl Griffith walked across the stage to receive the Wesley Worrell Award. Visually impaired, Griffith was the first and is the only Barbadian to be selected for the women’s West Indies Blind Cricket team.

The Barbados Women’s Cricket team won the Team Award after they slammed all competition to win the Caribbean West Indies Women’s T20 Blaze and Colonial Medical Insurance Women’s Super50 tournaments in 2019.

Winfield Forde of Bayley’s Primary won the Coach of the Year Award. Bayley’s also were the winning school for the Primary School Award while the Secondary School honours went to The Christ Church Foundation School.

Rodney Inniss (Dominoes) and Kenmore Bynoe (Nation) took home the Sports Administrator and Media Awards respectively.