Gala NSC awards billed for January 29 at National Cultural Centre

After a brief hiatus, the National Sports Commission’s award ceremony is set to return in grand style on January 29, a day after the Sport Conference is staged at the National Cultural Centre.

Minister of Youth Culture and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr. confirmed the dates of the two events after a meeting with the Director of Sport Steve Ninvalle, Assistant Director of Sport, Melissa Dow-Richardson, and a group of Sport Journalists at his Main Street office on Wednesday.

Given the awards have not been staged since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minister said they will cater for the accomplishments of 2021 and 2022.

The Minister further expressed confidence in the panel he has assembled to decide on the respective winners after the various National Sport Associations/Federations would have made their nominations.

At those awards in 2019, Basketball standout Stanton Rose Jr. and Table Tennis champion girl Chelsea Edghill, now an Olympian, were named Senior Sportsman and Woman respectively.

On the Junior side, Badminton’s female marquee player Priyanna Ramdhani and Squash prodigy Shomari Wiltshire were recognised for their on-court brilliance.

Meanwhile, the central focus of the Sport Conference will be to further discuss how to move the Sport Academies forward.

After the inaugural Sport Conference in 2021, the focus was shifted to the implementation of the first-ever Sport Academy in the country.

The Sport Conference featured four-panel discussions involving the 12 core disciplines, touching on a range of topics related to sport development.

The panel discussions touched on Governance, Nurturing Talent, Mindset, Revenue, Sponsorship, Media, Nutrition, Injuries, Psychology, Tournaments, Elite Training and International Competition.

Representatives of the other associations were also in attendance at the National Cultural Centre.

The Sport Academy, which importantly, is a programme and not a building, centres around three pillars- Nursery, Tournaments and Elite Training Academy.

The core sports currently identified by the Ministry are Badminton, Basketball, Cricket, Squash, Table Tennis, Rugby, Volleyball, Swimming, Football, Tennis, Hockey and Track and Field.