TRINIDAD and Tobago Under-17 football goalkeeper Linfah Jones is in the reckoning for the top female award when the First Citizens Sports Foundation stages their 2010 Youth Awards tomorrow at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.
Seventeen female sporting personalities are shortlisted for the top prize, in a variety of sporting disciplines.
Here is a look at some of the 17 contenders:
LINFAH JONES (football) — She may be small in stature for a goalkeeper, but Jones was huge on inspiration during the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup which was held in Trinidad and Tobago last September.
Her heroics helped in this country’s first-ever FIFA tournament victory, a 2-1 win over Chile, and also kept the other games close as the Soca Princesses gave a very creditable showing.
KELLY-ANN ARRINDELL (sailing) — Finished in second spot among the female competitors at the Martinique Semaine Nautique de Schoelcher, where she managed one second-place finish during her ten races.
CHANNON THOMPSON (volleyball) — Her athleticism came to the fore, once again, as she was named the Best Scorer at the NORCECA Girls’ Youth Continental Championship in Guatemala.
Thompson’s 107 points total was powered by the 90 spikes, eight blocks and nine service aces.
KERNESHA SPANN (track and field) — Spann was too good for silver medallist, Shakera Hall (Barbados), bronze medal recipient Claudette Allen (Jamaica) and the rest of the pack in the under-17 girls’ 300 metres hurdles final at the CAC Junior Track and Field Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She won in a time of 43.22 seconds.
KRISTI RENO-SINGH (badminton) — Reno-Singh was on the rampage during the 2010 TTBA National Junior Championships, where she won the under-15 girls singles, doubles and mixed doubles crowns along with the under-17 mixed doubles title.
BRITTANY MARQUEZ (golf) — This 17-year-old earned four victories in local tournaments in 2010, after earning wins in the Trinidad and Tobago senior team trials, the Nestle Svelty Women’s Golf Open, the AMBL/TATIL Open Golf Championships and the Republic Bank Caribbean Junior Open.
CATHERINE SPICER (table tennis) — She won gold and bronze medals in the cadet teams and doubles competition at the Guatemala Junior and Cadet Open and then repeated the feat at the El Salvador Junior and Cadet Open by taking gold and bronze medals in the cadet doubles and teams competitions.
BREANA STAMPFLI (tennis) — With six local titles to her credit during 2010, Stampfli created history by being this country’s youngest ever competitor, at 14 years, to represent Trinidad and Tobago in the Federation Cup when she took part in Americas Group II action in Guayaquil, Ecuador during April 2010.