Best and worst year in review

It may well be strange to you, but the Biggest Star of the Year, for me, was Melaine Walker. She didn't win gold at the 400m hurdles at the World Championships, but her refusal to allow injury to stop her makes her silver medal special. Her interview afterwards, when she said she told her bandages that they had taken her thus far and were no longer needed for the final, was perhaps the most inspirational speech I have ever heard from any Jamaican athlete.

The Biggest Disappointment of the Year must be Asafa Powell's no-show at the World Championships. All that hype for nothing! And what made it worse is the nagging belief that Asafa seems to be jinxed at big Games. Kaliese Spencer went into the Worlds as the favourite in the 400 hurdles, and didn't win a medal. That, too, was disappointing, as well as the senior netball team's performance at the World Championships.

Comeback Person

The Comeback Person of the Year must be Marlon Samuels. He may have been lukewarm at the international level, but he returned to regional cricket with the kind of dominance that many of us never thought possible.

The Contender series also deserves honorary mention in the 'Comeback' category, for reviving local interest in boxing, a sport that was deemed dead and buried.

The Survivor of the Year must be Captain Horace Burrell. His name and image took a dip after that now infamous meeting with CFU delegates and bin Hamman, and after his suspension, along with a host of others, it was felt that his days as a football administrator may well have been over. Subsequent events are trending to suggest otherwise, and Captain Burrell may well have the last laugh.

Rising Star of the Year is clearly Yohan Blake. What he accomplished over the year is no 'likkle boy thing'. Running the second-fastest 200 metres ever, after crawling out of the blocks, and holding his nerve to win the 100 metres at the World Championships, shows that he has arrived. Bolt now has genuine competition in both sprint events. Asafa always had the quality, but maybe not the gumption, to upstage Bolt, but with Yohan, you sense that this precocious man-child is not afraid of any challenge.

Administrative Blunder

The Administrative Blunder of the Year is a tie between the WICB's (and the JCB's) handling of the Chris Gayle issue and the sheer craziness that almost cost Jamaica the right to stage the final round of matches in the Under-17 World Cup qualifiers. Both the WICB and the JCB seem unsure of how to deal with Chris Gayle - one out of sheer vindictiveness and the other, cowardice.

The fiasco that caused the whole Under-17 qualifiers to be moved from the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium to Catherine Hall at the last minute, because of a substandard pitch, was an embarrassment that must never be repeated. It's not important who was wrong and who wasn't, but hopefully all would have learned.

The Cass-Cass of the Year is the ongoing feud between KSAFA's Rudolph Speid and the enigmatic Craig Butler. Gentlemen, the public is tired of it. Both of you mean the sport well, but I hope KSAFA and Rudolph take the higher ground, and find an amicable solution. Close behind was the election campaign in the run-up to the JCA presidential election. That was cass-cass to the extreme.

In that one, we heard everything, even that one presidential candidate did a Bruce Lee on somebody from the other slate! Interestingly, since the election, we haven't heard a 'peep' about that assault case.

And Coach of the Year goes to both Glen Mills and 'Bertis' Bell.

Walk good, and I hope next year 'ketch' you in a good mood!

Orville Higgins is the 2011 winner of the Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for Sports Reporting. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.