Matthew: Sports awards in February

Minister of Sports, Daryll Matthew, has announced that the National Sports Awards will take place during the second week of February next year, a date he hopes the ministry will be able to institutionalise going forward.
The pronouncement comes less than 24 hours following the staging of the Vita Malt-sponsored event on Thursday night when the country’s top athletes were rewarded for their outstanding performances in 2017.
“And we are trying to institutionalise that date so that everyone knows [when] it is because to be fair to the associations, if you never really know when the date is then you procrastinate because you expect the date will be extended for you to submit,” he said.
“If we set it in stone from now that this is what it is and that this is the deadline and we’ll proceed whether or not you have nominated anyone then it puts a little bit more pressure on the associations to get the nominees in and to get the nominees in properly,” he added.
On Thursday, track and field’s Cejhae Greene captured the senior men’s award while bodybuilding’s Kimberly Ephraim was adjudged winner in the senior women’s category.
The junior boy’s and girl’s category were captured by kite-border Tiger Tyson and fencing’s Tamesha Thomas respectively.
Matthew commended the successful participants while urging associations to do more in trying to honour their athletes.
“I want to congratulate all of the nominees from last night [Thursday] and all of the winners. I think it was a fantastic event and I think that all those associations that did, in fact, nominate representatives deserve commendation. While, at the same time, those associations that did not, deserve some flacking because it was horribly bad, the amount of associations that did not. Even those that submitted, in some of the categories they didn’t. How difficult is it for you to submit a club of the year? Only two associations did and I just think it’s sad and disappointing,” he said. 
The sports awards, originally scheduled for March of this year, faced several postponements and at one point, was reportedly in danger of being cancelled.