TOP HONOUR

IN front of a packed Needham’s Ballroom at the Hilton Barbados Resort, a humble Zane Maloney stood up in amazement and walked to the stage after his name was announced as the recipient of the Barbados Olympic Association President’s Award.

Maloney won the award which was the highlight of the prestigious event and it was not even his first honour of the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) and the Barbados Lottery 2019 Dinner and Awards Ceremony. The British Formula 4 Champion had earlier won the Junior Male Athlete of the Year Award after an amazing year on the racing circuit. Being the only main award winner present at the ceremony, the presence of the young 16-year-old along with the Governor General of Barbados, Dame Sandra Mason, made the night truly special.

Meagan Best took the Junior Female Athlete of the Year Award after she cleaned up the major local squash tournaments, placed second in the Senior Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Championships in Guyana and most recently played to silver in the US Squash Open.

An amazing and inspiring run from Shane Brathwaite in the 2019 Pan Am Games saw him win the Senior Male Athlete of the Year Award and the BOA/Barbados Lottery Award. Running 13.31 seconds to gold, Brathwaite made history by handing Barbados the first gold in the discipline at the games.

Also doing well at the Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru was cyclist Amber Joseph. Until the final event, Joseph was in third but fell to sixth at the end. Her fight and determination on the track earned her the Senior Female Athlete of the Year Award.

The evening also saw the BOA honour those who gave back to their society and local communities, even after retiring from their sporting disciplines. Nicholas Neckles won the International Excellence Award while Terrance Haynes won the IOC Trophy. Both swimmers have done the swimming fraternity proud in reminding those who have left the pool in retirement, that they can still do Barbados a service by giving back. Haynes coaches swimming in a saltwater pool in St. Lucy and believes that the life skill of swimming is a necessary task to take on, especially when it comes to the youth of the nation. Both Haynes and Neckles also competed on the Masters circuit in 2019, locally and internationally with 40-year-old Neckles smashing the Boys 18 and Over national record in the Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championships (CCCAN) at the Aquatic Centre this year.

The Weightlifting Federation won the Barbados Independence Invitational Games Federation Champion Award, which was received by President Andrew Callender. The Team Ward went to the squash pair of Meagan Best and Khamal Cumberbatch. They are the reigning National Junior Squash Male and Female Champions and teamed up in mixed doubles to take Pan Am gold this year. Two athletes also received the Special Athlete Recognition Awards. They were chess player Hannah Wilson in the Junior category after winning gold at the 8th CARIFTA Chess Championships this year in Curacao and in the Senior category, it was equestrian Roberta Foster.