Eugene, Oregon, is a place Akela Jones will never forget.
After all, that was where she became a World champion on July 23 this year in the long jump.
She created history, becoming the first Bajan female to be a World champion in athletics. That leap of 6.34 metres also gave us our first gold at World Juniors so she has become a trailblazer even though that may not have been her intention when she began her mission in Oregon.
Jones has always been very competitive from primary school days at Hilda Skeene and her secondary alma mater Springer Memorial. If as some point out her personal circumstances may have created this state of mind, then there is no limit on what she can achieve. Besides, I believe that all champions have to be competitive to be at the top of the heap.
Before the World championships she showed her class by earning the coveted and prestigious Austin Sealy Award at this year’s CARIFTA Games with victories in the long jump, high jump and 100-metre hurdles. I thought the victory in the hurdles was her best performance because she wasn’t favoured to win, but her grit and determination pushed her to be number one.
On the strength of these two achievements I selected her as my Sports Personality Of The Year. Plus the weight and prestige that come with a World title should make it a foregone conclusion for those charged with making the official choice.
I gave her the smallest of edges over jockey Patrick Husbands who won his seventh title at Woodbine, despite riding in tremendous pain all season following injury.
In May last year, Husbands fell from his mount, A Tough Buck and broke his right leg. He required surgery and the breaks were so severe it is understood that the doctors had to insert screws, rods and a bolt to keep the leg in place, resulting in constant and extreme pain.
When I saw him recently, the discomfort was still very evident but it didn’t prove to be a deterrent to achieving his goals. As a result of the injury, he missed a lot of the season at Woodbine and it gave defending champion Luis Contreras a healthy head start.
Somehow, the 41-year-old had the intestinal fortitude to get past the post first, booting home 170 winners, seven more than his Mexican arch-rival. When asked what kept him going, Husbands said you have to conquer pain to be a champion. Pearls of wisdom and words anybody can use to help motivate them especially in the face of adversity.
Shane Brathwaite gets my bronze medal as he did at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland in the 110-metre hurdles.This was the biggest global event we attended this year and coupled with the fact that he was our lone medal winner, his performance has to be noted and placed in the elite category.
Brathwaite,who was the World junior octhaflon champion in 2008, can currently be regarded as our best male sprint hurdler, even though 2009 World champion, the illustrious Ryan Brathwaite is still competing.
I also considered Chelsea Tuach and Darian King for top marks.
For the past two years,Tuach has given surfing more mass appeal than it has ever had. This has happened because she has competed successfully among her peers on the international Junior Circuit in particular.She ended 2014 as the third best junior in the world for the second year running.
Noted for her powerful front hand snaps,Tuach is in a position to inspire other outstanding talents like Chelsea Roett and Che Allan who can also make their mark on the international waves in the near future once they get the same exposure to gain similar experiences.
Not since the halcyon days of Martin Blackman and Richard Ashby in the mid 1980s, has a local tennis player captured our imagination like Darian King. No disrespect is intended for his colleagues but even they might acknowledge that he’s the one mainly responsible for Barbados’ unprecedented showing in the Davis Cup this year.
He was the heartbeat of our sterling displays against El Salvador, Chile and Mexico and taking us to the next level. King also won Future Tournaments in Romania and the Netherlands. He has finished the year with an ATP ranking of 322 in the world. Not bad for a talent that’s on the rise.
Like Tuach, King has been able to draw greater attention to his sport and once he continues to thrive, he can inspire scores of others to play tennis.
If it was in my place to give a special award, it would go to Dale Clarke, who as chief executive officer of the Professional Road Tennis Association,was able to organise the kind of tournaments that drew the biggest crowds ever to our indigenous sport.We could also agree that the return of the exciting Antoine Daniel played his part.
By extension, I think photo/journalist Kenmore Bynoe did exceptional work in covering road tennis, and on this count alone, even though he supported other disciplines, would be my Sports Journalist Of The Year.
Here’s to a happy sporting new year whether you turn out to be a champion or not.
• Andi Thornhill is an experienced, award-winning sports journalist.
