RJR Sports Awards | The Nominees

 

National Sportsman Nominees, 2016

Athletics: Usain Bolt became the first man in track and field history to claim the triple-treble, by winning his third straight set of 100 metres, 200 metres and sprint relay titles in Rio, Brazil.

Already a legend and the most successful male sprinter of all time, the victories took Bolt's total of world titles to 20, nine of which are Olympic gold medals with 11 World Championship titles. Of this total, an incredible 13 are individual gold medals.

Bolt also has two silver medals obtained in the 200 metres and the 4x100 metres relay from the 2007 World Championships. Incredibly, Bolt achieved this despite a significant injury just weeks before the Rio Olympics.

Athletics: Omar McLeod followed up his 2015 breakout season with a stellar 2016 season in which he became the first Jamaican to win an Olympic sprint hurdles gold medal. McLeod took the Men's 110 metres High hurdles event in 13.05 seconds.

McLeod also set the two fastest times of the year for the event (12.97 and 13.01 seconds) and had six of the top eight times of the year.

Earlier in the year, McLeod became the first Jamaican male to win a World indoor sprint hurdles title, clocking a National Record in 7.41 seconds, winning the men's 60 metre Hurdles at the IAAF World Indoor Championships on March 17 in Portland, Oregon.

Cricket: Marlon Samuels was the hero for the West Indies in the ICC T20 World Cup Final in India.

The heavy hitter cracked an unbeaten 85 from 66 balls to help carry the West Indies to an improbable 4 wicket victory over England in April and was deservedly named player of the Match.

In July, Samuels was named West Indies One Day International Player of the Year for the 2015-2016 season. Samuels also scored a brilliant 125 against Australia in Barbados in an ODI match and 92 in another match of the series.

National Sportswoman Nominees, 2016

Swimming: Alia Atkinson made the Final of the women's 100 metre Breaststroke at the Rio Olympics Games in Brazil. Then, in the very first meet of the short course FINA/AIRWEAVE Swimming World Cup, Atkinson once again equalled the world record for the 100 m Breaststroke clocking 1 minute 02.36 seconds on August 26 in Chartres France.

Atkinson followed up with a new world short course record in the 50 metres Breaststroke at the Tokyo meet, breaking the seven year old record by 0.16 seconds with a swim of 28.64 seconds.

Atkinson finished second overall in the points standings for the World Cup and won all eight 50 metre Breaststroke events she entered in the series.

Atkinson finished the year with a trio of medals; gold, silver and bronze in the FINA World Swimming Championships in Windsor, Canada.

Athletics: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce overcame a painful, injury plagued season, narrowly missing out on becoming the first woman to win three Olympic 100 metres titles. Despite the problems, Fraser-Pryce ran through the pain to earn herself a bronze medal in the 100 metres at the Rio Olympics in a season best 10.86 seconds.

"The Pocket Rocket" also won a silver medal in the sprint relay.

Athletics: Shericka Jackson continued her fine form of 2015 with a bronze medal in the 400 metres at the Rio Olympic Games. The Jamaican speedster clocked a personal best 49.83 seconds in the semi-final before bringing home the bronze in the Final.

Jackson was also a vital member of the 4x400 metres relay team which claimed the silver medal at the Olympics.

Cricket: Stafanie Taylor who captained the West Indies team, led the squad to their first ever title at the ICC Women's T20 Cricket World Cup. The Windies defeated Australia in the final.

Taylor scored the most runs in the tournament and was fourth in the batting averages.

She also had the fourth highest wicket haul with eight wickets. Taylor is the world number one ranked ODI all-rounder and second ranked T20 all-rounder. She is also the highest ranked West Indies woman in both T-20 and One Day International batting rankings at number one and six, respectively.

Athletics: Elaine Thompson followed up her 2015 break out season by claiming the rare and coveted sprint double at the Olympic Games in Brazil and became the first woman since to do so in 28 years.

She clocked winning times of 10.71 seconds and 21.78 seconds for the 100 metres and 200 metres respectively. Thompson left her first Olympic Games with three medals; two gold and one silver.

In a brilliant season Thompson also equalled the National 100 metre record, clocking 10.70 seconds at the National Championships on July 1 to equal the mark set by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 2012.

Thompson ended the year in glory.

At the IAAF Diamond League she won all four races and finished second in the 200 metre Diamond series. She also set a new 200 metres Diamond League record of 21.85 seconds at the Welklasse meeting in Zurich.