New date identified for sports awards

The Vita Malt National Sports Awards will be held next month.
This has been confirmed by Minister of Sports, EP Chet Greene, who said that following meetings with the sponsors, Kennedy’s Club Ltd and consultations with his team at the ministry, a new date of July 23rd has been identified for the hosting of the annual event originally due in March.
“After consultation with our sponsors, Kennedy’s Club, we have agreed to a new date for the sports awards. We apologise for the delay from the first announced date [March 25]. We also agreed in today’s [Wednesday] meeting to institutionalise the date for the sports awards and it will now be held annually on the second Saturday in the month of March,” he said.
The awards was suspended from its original date following the passing of Pauline “Mama Gen” Francis in late January, a co-owner of the Kennedy’s Club Ltd.
The ceremony was then rescheduled to May but it also failed to materialise at that time.
Greene said measures are being put in place to ensure that the awards are held at a particular time every year.
“The plans had already been drafted and for example, the types of awards, trophies and medals had already been established. The venue will be the Sir Vivian Richards stadium and it will start at 6 pm and the decision to institutionalise it is to ensure that going forward, we don’t have the challenges we had this year,” the minister said.
Track and field athletes Miguel Francis, who now runs for Great Britain, and Priscilla Frederick were named Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year for 2015.
In the junior category, young sprinter Bliss Soleyn dominated the female awards while swimming’s Lleyton Martin copped the men’s equivalent.