The 59th edition of the gala event, entitled “A Journey Beyond Hope” and comes off tonight via a televised production on CNC3 from 7.30 p.m. It will also be broadcast live on that station’s website.

Team TTO’s Paul used his challenging experiences from Tokyo 2020 – where the 23-year-old placed sixth and 12th in the men’s sprint and keirin respectively – to propel him to this country’s first world medal in 30 years.

Paul pedalled to a silver medal in the 1km time trial at the UCI Track World Championships in Roubaix, France, last October, when he clocked 59.269 seconds to finish 0.523 seconds behind Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland.

Paul had preceded this feat with triple gold at the UCI Nations Cup in Cali, Colombia, in the 1km time trial, keirin and sprint events. He also earned a silver medal in the sprint at the UCI Track Champions League event in Panevezys, Lithuania.

Among the women, Gittens was the standout female athlete who as a senior at Texas A&M University enjoyed a successful 2021, including a final appearance in the women’s long jump at the Tokyo2020 Games (10th place).

Among her collegiate highlights were the pentathlon title she captured at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas with 4,746 points and the heptathlon crown claimed at the NCAA Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon, with 6,285 points.

In the Youth category, swimmer Nikoli Blackman leads contenders with his 50-metre freestyle B final victory and 400-metre freestyle B final second-placing at the Junior Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia. The 16-year old also competed at the FINA World Championships (25m) in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

In the women’s category, athllete Janae De Gannes put her name up for major consideration with her winning both the Under-17 girls’ long jump and 100 metres titles at the fifth event of the NAAA Series.

Last season De Gannes leapt to an Under-16 women’s national long jump record of 6.06 metres – and second-place in the world performance list for Under-16 athletes – while her personal best 12.13 seconds in the 100 metres placed her ninth in the global rankings.