Rugby union nominates 'Big Truck' for Sportsman of the Year award
Stabroek News
January 8, 2004
The Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) has named World Boxing Council cruiserweight champion Wayne `Big Truck' Braithwaithe as its nominee for the 2003 Sportsman of the Year award and the GRFU for the Sports Association of the Year award.
The GRFU, in a press release issued yesterday, also nominated its under-18 team for the Team of the Year award.
No doubt, Braithwaithe's performance during the past year speaks for itself, as the GRFU's press release only dealt with its own and its under-18 team's performance during the period.
The under-18 team won the Southern West Indies Rugby Union (WIRU) Championship by defeating Trinidad and Tobago, the 2002 champions in Trinidad. The team also captured the West Indies Rugby Union Championship, defeating Jamaica, winners of the Northern WIRU Champion-ship in Guyana last month during the North America West Indies Rugby Association's (NAWIRA) Under-19 World Cup Qualifying Tournament.
The GRFU's accomplishments include being nominated by the WIRU and successfully hosting the West Indies Tens Championship in August, where Guyana placed second to Trinidad and Tobago although a draw was forced against the eventual champions, and defeated Jamaica and Barbados. The GRFU was nominated and successfully hosted the NAWIRA under-18 Rugby World Cup Qualifier and placed second to the United States.
The release also pointed out the Guyana's National Seven's Team competed successfully in the Carib International Invitational Tournament in Trinidad and Tobago and placed fifth out of 16 participating teams. Guyana played six games and won four and based on their performance, were awarded the trophy for best representing 'the Spirit of Rugby' at the tournament.
GRFU's Christopher Kit Nascimento was elected to serve as secretary of the NAWIRA and as an executive member of the WIRU.
Nascimento was also invited as a special guest of the International Rugby Board to attend the semi-finals and final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
The release also cited the union's introduction of the sport to ten secondary schools in Georgetown.
The GRFU has nominated Kaieteur News' Claude David (print) and GTV's Alana Johnson (electronic) for the Sports Journalists of the Year awards and Stabroek News' Lawrence Fanfair for the Sports Photographer award.