Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Shaunae athlete of the year

In an unparalleled decision, the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) selected top junior athlete Shaunae Miller as the Athlete of the Year for her astral gold medal and record-breaking performances in 2010.The 16-year-old 11th grader at St Augustine's College was presented the important Charlie Major Sr award by Charlie Major Jr and Andrea Charlton during the BAAA luncheon at the Sheraton resort, Cable Beach, Sunday.Miller not only got the No.1 ranking in the women's 400 metres with her victory at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, but she also posted a national junior record and was the gold medallist at both the Carifta Games and CAC Junior Championships where she recognized a meet record as well.

Those feats helped her to also cart home both the Dianna Lynn Thompson Junior Female Athlete of the Year and the Anita Doherty Junior Female Track Athlete of the Year awards.But her biggest triumph came in her win over Donald Thomas, the CAC and Common wealth Games gold medallist and IAAF Continental Cup silver medallist and Chris 'Fireman' Brown, the IAAF World Indoor 400 metre gold medallist, at the year-ending gala awards celebrations."I was excited that I won, but I was a little shocked," said a soft-spoken Miller. "I just have to keep my head high and just continue doing what I have been doing. I'm going to go out and try my best to do it again this year."

Her coach, Dianne Woodside, said the feat is just the tip of the iceberg. "She had a very productive year. I think she deserves it," Woodside said. "She has the World Youth Championships in France. She is very young, so we won't put any pressure on her for World Championships. But if she's ready, she will go to it too."Woodside, by the way, was named the Henry Crawford Coach of the Year, an achievement she shared with her Club Monica athletes."I'm quite honoured. It's not something that I likely, but I'm just glad that I came out on top," said Woodside, who also serves as the president of the revised Bahamas Track and Field Coaches Association.

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