NEVIS CYCLE & TRIATHLON CLUB

Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-KIM COLLINS, Virgil Hodge, Reggie Douglas and Meritzer Williams were named last night (Dec. 22) as the St. Kitts-Nevis athletes of the year.

During a special live broadcast of the Inside Edge Sports Program the athletes were awarded not only the titles of St. Kitts and Nevis’ male and female athletes of the year, but were also given a variety of prizes such as gift certificates and laptops.

Nevis’ Male Athlete of the Year, Douglas, said that 2008 would be remembered as great year for him as a triathlon runner and for the sport in general within St. Kitts-Nevis.
“We started off the year with the Carino Health Spa Triathlon [in Nevis]. It was a magnificent event where we had 26 different countries, and was a real tough competition but I took first overall and retained the OECS championship for three years in a row. “Then there was Tobago, which was a pretty marvelous event too. It was a top international event where I took the overall win after a hard fight from the Trinidad & Tobago guys down there. Finally, to top my season off I became the overall Caribbean champion in St. Croix,” he said.

His female counterpart for the Nevis award, the 19-year-old Williams, said that she could not have asked for a better season after winning silver in the 100m and 200m at the 37th Carifta Games, taking silver in the 200m at the IAAF World Juniors and competing at the Beijing Olympic games, amongst other achievements. Williams’ 100m medal at Carifta and medal at the World Juniors were also a first for any athlete from St. Kitts or Nevis.

Hodge said that her transition season from college track star to professional athlete had many high moments.

“I think it was a really good year, especially ending off at the Olympic Games. I think that every athlete in any sport would love to go to the Olympic Games and I had the opportunity to do that. ”She also said that though her senior year at Texas Christian University was hampered by a minor knee injury, she expected 2009 with her brand new Adidas sponsorship to be phenomenally successful.

Former Commonwealth and World Champion Collins was reflective on his very successful and, as he intimated, possibly last major year as a professional athlete.

“The season started off a bit slow…but I was very happy with how the year ended. I just have to give God thanks for giving me the opportunity to compete for so many years. It has been a long journey and I have been more than blessed to do it year after year. It is now time to pass the torch off to the younger athletes,” he said.

Collins also had words of advice for the youth of the Federation.

“As we see what is going on in our country it is very difficult. It is a long and hard struggle we have to go through to get this message out, but we have to try and make the people understand that they need to put the guns down. People say that life on the street is rough, well if life on the street is rough I encourage you to go home.”

In addition to the athletes’ awards, the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Athletics Association was chosen as the 2008 sports association of the year for its various achievements, including hosting the 37th Carifta Games.