The St Lucia Athletics Association named Darvin Edwards, Levern Spencer and Tressa Anne Charles its Athletes of the Year for 2004 at a recent awards dinner. The three athletes, all field events competitors, captured a total of four national awards, and they are now in line for national Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year honours.
Edwards, 18, was the boys' high jump champion at the 2004 CARIFTA Games as well as the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior Track & Field Championships. Locally, the Entrepot Secondary fifth-form student was victorious at the Bank of St Lucia Junior National Championships. But Darvin did not just make his mark in the junior ranks. He was second at Whitsuntide Games in Grenada, clearing the same height as eventual winner Damon Thompson, a former CARIFTA champ. Locally, Edwards captured the national open title, and he established a new junior record of 2.09m for his event, at Whitsuntide in May, and again at CAC in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, in June.
For his accomplishments, Darvin was recognised as junior and senior male athlete of the year.
Another high jumper, Levern Spencer is no stranger to the athlete of the year award. Currently on scholarship at Albany State University, Ga, Levern is a former World Youth Championship medallist and a former CARIFTA and CAC champion. At the National Championships and Independence Games, she won the women's 100m, 200m and high jump. She also took two regional medals. At the Whitsuntide Games, the 20-year-old won the women's high jump, clearing a national-record 1.88m in so doing. She also placed second in that event at the North and Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Under-23 Track & Field Championships.
Levern was named senior athlete of the year for the fourth time in the past five years.
National shot-put champion Tressa Anne is junior female athlete of the year. In 2004, the 18-year-old Courts St Lucia employee three times reset the national record for her event. She threw 14.06m to finish second at CARIFTA, 14.16m to win at Nationals and 14.67m to take silver again at Coatzacoalcos. She also won gold at the Independence Games, Bank of St Lucia Games and Whitsuntide Games. Tressa Anne has committed to attending the University of Alabama in fall 2005. She is a first-time recipient of national acknowledgement as athlete of the year.
The Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development, Youth and Sports will stage the national awards ceremony in February. For the past four years, track and field athletes have taken women's honours. Spencer did it three times, followed by Erma Gene Evans last year. The St Lucia Athletics Association was also named Association of the Year 2003.
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Terry Finistere for the IAAF
