Thomas

THE 49th staging of the annual RJR National Sportsman and Sporstwoman awards ceremony will be held early next year and at the recent press conference there were 14 nominations which included five men and nine women.

As usual, track and field athletes dominated the list as nine of those who participated at this year's World Championships in Berlin will be vying for the top awards. The list includes seven females and two males.

Although track and field is loaded, one member who participated at the Berlin Championships, Dwight Thomas, is disappointed he was not one of the nominees.

"I am very disappointed that my name was not among the nominees," said Thomas, who was a finalist in the 110-metre hurdles in Berlin.

Making sacrifices

Beside, being a finalist, Thomas also ran in the preliminary round of the men's 4x100-metre relay and helped the team qualify for the final.

"I am happy for all the nominees but I think I did enough this past year to be mentioned because I made a sacrifice and ran in the opening round of the relay despite being injured. I did this because Usain was tired and I put country first," said Thomas.

Indeed it was a wonderful year for the former Calabar High school athlete who was running the 110-metre hurdles at the senior level for the first time.

Following the World Champion-ships, he went on to break Maurice Wignall's national record of 13.17 seconds when he won the event at a Grand Prix Meet in Zurich, Switzerland, with a new mark of 13.16 seconds.

Not crying

"I am not crying over spilt milk but I think I did enough for my name to be mentioned because I went on to beat the World champion and the silver medallist," he continued.

Thomas thinks that his sport should not be sacrificed for other sports and if only track and field athletes deserve to be nominated one year they should.

"I am a cricket fan and I have nothing against the cricketers who were nominated but I looked on the people who were nominated in this sport and I know that my achievement, compared to theirs, was of a higher standard. How can someone score one Test century and be nominated?" he argued.

Thomas stated that he will not let this affect his performance in the upcoming season as he is going to work harder.

"It is an honour when you are recognised for your achievements and hopefully I can excel more next year so that I can be mentioned," he said.

Thomas will be hoping to make a mark at the World Indoor Championships.

"I will be doing the 60-metre hurdles indoors and hopefully I will be selected for the World Indoor Championships because I am very confident in this event now," said Thomas, who last competed in this event in 2004 at the college level, where he registered a personal best of 7.59 seconds.

"Unlike the 110-metre hurdles where I can be relaxed at the start and use my good top-end speed over the last three hurdles, I will have to approach the shorter event differently as I will have to catch the gun at the start if I hope to be successful," noted Thomas.