By Neto Baptiste
Head of the judges’ committee for the National Sports Awards, Agatha Dublin, believes that the regular hosting of pre-evaluation meetings with national associations and federations leading into the annual event could help to improve the quality of submissions to the five-member panel.
“What I think needs to happen going forward is that maybe the ministry can arrange to have a pre-evaluation meeting just before they submit their nominations. It was done in the past but I think it needs to be done because it is obvious that some federations need assistance in preparing their nomination forms, but I know it was done in the past. The last one that I attended, the participation was very limited,” she said.
Dublin, a former national netballer and administrator, was speaking on the heels of last Saturday’s awards held at the St John’s Pentecostal Church House of Restoration on Lauchland Benjamin Drive.
Dublin said there are still some associations and federations that may not fully understand what is required to ensure that submissions are of a high standard.
“Some associations or federations did an excellent job in presenting their nominees’ portfolios, while others need help, and then there are others who have the capacity but, for some reason, just did not live up to expectations,” she said.
“I will qualify this by saying that there were few submissions that were reduced to a single sentence statement of fact. There were no qualifying information, no competitions results, no supporting details or even affirmation of the nominees’ valued accomplishment,” she added.
The head judged also expressed disappointment over the fact that a number of associations failed to even make submissions.
“The numbers were disappointing and the ceremony was excellent, I must say, but we missed federations like football, fencing, tennis, warri, golf, boxing and so on. So, it was sort of disappointing they did not field any nominees because I know that some of these federations had participants or athletes who did very well during the period of January 1st to December 31st 2022, so it was a little disappointing in that regard,” Dublin said.
The other members of the judging committee are former national track and field athlete and coach, Ted Daley, sports journalist Joel Rayne, attorney at law Andrea Smithen-Henry, and auditor Jonte Barnes.
West Indies fast bowler Alzarri Joseph and IFBB Elite Pro Bikini Fitness bodybuilder Ambassador Kimberly Percival were named Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year for 2022, while the awards, the first since the Covid-19 virus reached the shores of Antigua and Barbuda in 2020, also saw the crowning of swimmers Ethan Stubbs-Green and Ellie Shaw as the Junior Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year, respectively.