Shanee Angol and Tyrone Theophile are 2015 top sports personalities

The top individual awards at the 10th Ministry of Sports awards ceremony for 2015 went to young sports men and women with ability and drive to make Dominica proud.

Shanee Angol of the Dominica State College, previously of the Pierre Charles Secondary School, was voted the Sports Woman of the Year for her achievements in athletics including regional medals in javelin.

The Sportsman of the Year award went to Desiderata Tremors, Dominica and Windward Islands Volcanoes cricketer Tyrone Theophile who among his performances was the second highest run scorer, behind Volcanoes player West Indies national cricketer Devon Smith of Grenada, in the West Indies Cricket Board men's four-day competition.

The 10th sports awards ceremony took place at the Fort Young Hotel on Wednesday May 4, 2016 before an august gathering including Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and Sports Minister Justina Charles among other government and parliamentary officials.

The first set of awards to sporting disciplines, the most valuable players (MVP) award began when parliamentary representative for Roseau Central Joseph Isaac, a former outstanding middle distance runner and team captain during his secondary school days, made the first presentations for track and field to Shanee Angol and triple jumper Yordanys Garcia.

Other MVPs were: Anika Proctor and Thomas Felix-basketball; Valerian Spicer and Jamesy Greenaway-boxing; Dr Richard Green-bridge; Annica Andrew and Tyrone Theophile-cricket; Oliver Yankey-dominoes; Alijah Titre and Randolph Peltier-football; Shernel St Rose-netball; Antoinette Paul-rounders; Casimir Benjamin-softball cricket; Allijah Prince and Clifton Lewis (deceased)-table tennis (Mrs Lewis, widow of Clifton made the presentations while son Triston received the posthumous award on behalf of his father); Mauricio Burton-tennis; and Catherine Francis and Kerwin George-volleyball.

Then there were the nominated awards of the year. They were Claudius Shipley-Special Olympics; Isaac Andre-grounds man; Lennox Abraham-best official (cricket umpire) as sole nominees in their respective categories.

The award for physical education/sports teacher primary school and secondary schools went to Dario Frank of Wills Strathmore Stevens (WSS) and Lisa James of North East Comprehensive (NECS) respectively; School of the Year primary and secondary to WSS and NECS respectively; sports reporter-Gavin Richards-DBS radio; coach-Mervin Thomas (cricket); club-Exodus FC of St Joseph; sports committee-Kalinago; sponsor-Big Edges Financial Express; and association-Football.

The Female Youth of the Year award went to Allijah Prince, State College & Portsmouth SS and the male category to Alick Athanaze, Pierre Charles SS. Both received $500 compliments Ministry of Sports and a further $500 from Marciano Brown to the male athlete to encourage young men. Minister Justina Charles presented these awards.

The awards for sportswoman and sportsman to Shanee Angol and Tyrone Theophile were presented by Prime Minister Skerrit. They each received $1,000 from the Government of Dominica, $1,000 from Dominica National Lottery and $1,000 from Petro Caribe, hand set from Flow and gift basket from Springfield Trading.

There was also a special recognition award for former Sports Coordinator Ossie Savarin; he instituted the national sports awards in 2007.