By Neto Baptiste
The nomination deadline for the National Sports Honours which expired on December 31, 2020 could be extended following a poor response by national sporting associations.
This is according to Deputy Director of Sports, Evans Jones, who said that less than 10 associations met the original deadline for nominations.
“It hasn’t been discussed as yet, but I am quite sure we will have to extend it based on the number of nominees we would have gotten before the deadline date, because we were actually looking for a total of 45 nominees and we are also recognising media personnel also,” he said.
To date, there have been nominations from the fencing association, chess association, cycling federation, bodybuilding federation, triathlon association, swimming federation, football association, draughts association and sports medicine.
Jones reminded that the awards will honour those who have given countless years to administering, playing, volunteering and managing in sports.
“Some who actually gave in their nominees are still not aware of the exact reasons as to why we are having it this year. It is not a judging competition this year, but we are looking for persons who have given yeoman’s service to the associations over the years but were not recognised in any way or format, so we saw it fit to give them some recognition for their services, and we’re still seeing some, like bodybuilding, who sent in their two recent participants from the CAC Games,” he said. The National Sports Honours Awards is slated for February 13 and associations were asked to make nominations in the areas of one male and one female nominee, including but not limited to coaches, administrators, officials and athletes who have contributed over the years.