The first ever Caribbean Awards Sports Icons ceremony was held last Friday at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, in Kingston on 7th November 2008. It was hosted by the newly formed Caribbean Awards Sports Icons (CASI).

CASI previously nominated 35 Caribbean sports personalities for the awards with Jamaicans domination more than half on the list. There were six categories which includes Football, Boxing, Cricket, Athletics (Male & Female), Netball and Administrators.

Focusing on Athletics, track and field star Veronica Campbell-Brown won the female award. She however wasn’t present, but her teammate and training partner, Aleen Bailey accepted on her behalf. Veronica was the youngest nominee at the ceremony. If you’re clueless, she won gold in 2004 and 2008 Olympics in her 200m event. She beat Jamaicans Merlene Ottey, Bahamians Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie and Chandra Sturrup for the award.

The male athletics award goes to Cuba’s Alberto Juantorena. He too wasn’t present for the award. The former Cuban star won the 400 and 800 metres at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal Canada. His timing of 1:43.50 then was a world record and three days later back in 1976 captured the 400m title in 44.26 seconds. He beat Jamaica’s Donald Quarrie and Trinidad & Tobago’s Hasley Crawford for the award.

Meanwhile there was a special award called the “Spotlights on Beijing”. They were given to Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and Shelly Ann Frazer for their scintillating performances at Beijing. Usain won the 100m (9.69s), 200m (19.30s) and the 4x100m (37.10s), all in world record times while Shelly won the women’s 100m event in a time of 10.78 seconds.

The awards are based on accomplishments over the last 60 years between 1948 and 2008. The nominees were selected by members of the sports media fraternity, national Olympic committees and national federations across the region.