Elton Tucker, Assistant Editor - Sport

( L - R ) Smith, Powell

World 100-metre champion Veronica Campbell-Brown is a cinch for the 2007 Sportswoman of the Year title, but it is a toss-up between world 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell and Maurice Smith, the World Championships decathlon silver medallist, for the Sportsman of the Year crown.

The winners will be named at tonight's RJR Sport Foundation's 47th annual National Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year award ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel. The function is set to start at 7 p.m.

Campbell-Brown performed brilliantly in Osaka last year to win one of the closest women's 100m finals ever at the World Championships. She then added silver in the 200m and ran the final leg on the sprint relay team which earned second place. Her performances put her head and shoulders above others like 400m bronze medallist Novlene Williams and Delloreen Ennis-London who clocked a personal best 12.50 in taking the bronze medal in the 100m hurdles at the same championships.

Powell, the 2006 Sportsman of the Year, is locked in a keen battle with Smith, the first Jamaican to win a medal in a multi-discipline event at world level.

Smith's silver lining

Individually, Smith was the better performer in Osaka. His decathlon silver, gained with a national record 8,644 points, came as a big surprise, while Powell, the overwhelming favourite for the men's 100m gold, was relegated to third in the final by American Tyson Gay and Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas. Powell was a relay silver medallist in the men's 4x100m in a national record 37.89 seconds.

The 100m world record holder proved himself to be a great champion just two weeks later when he clipped three-hundredths of a second off his 9.77 seconds world record to establish a new mark of 9.74 at the Rieti Grand Prix in Italy. His time, it appeared, could have been far faster as he was easing up at the end.

Guest speaker at tonight's function will be Dick Fosbury, the American who revolutionised high jumping at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 with his Fosbury Flop. His back-first style which amazed the Mexico City crowd 40 years ago is now the norm in high jumping. Fosbury was recently elected president of the World Olympians Association.

Nominees for tonight's awards

Men: Asafa Powell (athletics), Maurice Smith (athletics), Danny McFarlane (athletics), Usain Bolt (athletics), Dorian Scott (athletics), Chris Gayle (cricket), Darren Powell (cricket).

Women: Veronica Campbell-Brown (athletics), Sherri-Ann Brooks (athletics), Delloreen Ennis-London (athletics), Nickeisha Wilson (athletics), Novlene Williams (athletics), Karen Anderson (badminton), Tashana Vincent (women's football).