Jamaica’s Roshawn Clarke, who retained his Boys Under 20 400m hurdles title, was named the Austin Sealy Award winner as the most outstanding athlete at the 50th Carifta Games that ended in Nassau, Bahamas on Monday. Clarke won the event in a season’s best and World Under 20 leading 49.92 seconds, 11th best in the world and second only to Jehue Gordon’s championship record of 49.72 seconds set in 2010 in Guyana.
Roshawn, who was also a part of the Under 20 men’s winning 4x400m relay team that closed the championships, joins an illustrious list of Jamaicans who have won the award. Jon Jones was the first Jamaican to win the award in 1979, Andrea Thomas won it in 1985, Michell Freeman in 1988, Inez Turner in 1991, Claudine Williams in 1992 and Nikole Mitchell in 1993, Roy Bailey and Aileen Bailey shared it in 1997.
Jamaicans won the award every year between 2001 and 2005 with Usain Bolt winning it in back-to-back years 2003 and 2004. Veronica Campbell Brown won it in 2001, Anneisha McLaughlin in 2002 and Theon O’Connor in 2005.
Yohan Blake brought home the award for Jamaica again in 2007 but Jamaicans had to wait until 2018 before getting their hands on the coveted title again. That year, Briana Williams walked away with the honour. She made it back-to-back wins when she nabbed the title again in 2019.