The Tribune

THE Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture held its 2016 National Sports Awards in the ballroom at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island on Saturday night.

The event closed out the ministry’s Sports Heritage Month, which included the induction of 16 more persons into the Hall of Fame last week at Government House.

Shaunae Miller, the winner of the women’s gold medal at the Olympic Games in August in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, carted off three awards, including the Prime Minister’s Award for National Pride, the overall Female Athlete of the Year and the Bahamas Olympic Committee award.

Miller was not present but Leevan ‘Superman’ Sands, the BAAAs athlete representative, accepted the awards on her behalf.

Sands, by the way, received the National Sportsmanship Award for making his comeback to the Olympics after he went down with a near career- ending injury in the men’s triple jump at the last Olympics four years ago in London, England.

Chavanno ‘Buddy’ Hield, coming off a sensational four years of college experience with the Oklahoma Sooners that ended up with him being drafted as the No.6 pick by the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA draft in June, was named the overall senior Male Athlete of the Year.

Chris ‘Fireman’ Brown picked up the Tourism Impact Award for hosting his Bahamas Invitational for the second time this year.

His Olympic team-mate Stephen ‘Dirty’ Newbold, who helped the Bahamas men’s 4 x 400 metre team secure the silver at the Olympics, was awarded the Triumph Award.

The most improved Athlete of the Year was Pedrya Seymour, who ran the 100m hurdles for the first time this year, competed at the IAAF World Indoor Championships, made it to the NCAA Championships where she suffered an injury in the final and bounced back to make it to the final of the Olympics in her international debut.

Minor League Baseball player Lucius Fox and rising young track sensation Devine Parker were awarded the male and female Future Stars awards, while Parker also took the overall Junior Female Athlete of the Year.

The Junior Male Athlete of the Year was DeAndre Ayton, who at the same time was competing at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium with his visiting Hillcrest Academy basketball team. Ayton, 17, played a pivotal role on the success of the men’s senior national team at the CentroBasket Tournament.

The Bahamas Olympic Committee’s 2016 Olympic team took the top honours for the national team award. The National Corporate Sponsor of the Year was BTC and National Secondary School award went to St Augustine’s College.

A capacity crowd turned out for the event. Bishop Arnold Josey delivered the opening prayer to set the tone for the night.

Roy Colebrooke, one of the vice presidents of the BOC and the chef de mission for the Olympic team, gave remarks and Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson was the keynote speaker.

Dyson Knight performed for the audience.