For the second year running, Jamaica’s Briana Williams won the coveted Austin Sealy Award at the Carifta Games that concluded at the Truman Bodden Stadium in the Cayman Islands on Sunday.
Like she did in 2018 in the Cayman Islands, Williams won the 100m and 200m in season-best times of 11.25and 22.89 respectively and was a member of Jamaica’s gold medal-winning 4x100m u20 relay team.
She becomes the sixth athlete in the 48-year history of the CARIFTA Games to win back-to-back Austin Sealy honours as the Games’ Most Outstanding Athlete.
She is also the first back-to-back winner since Bahamian Anthonique Strachan in 2011 and 2012, and just the second female to win back to back Austin Sealy awards. She is just the second Jamaican to win the honour in back to back years following in the footsteps of Usain Bolt, who won in 2003 and 2004.
This was supposed to be Briana’s swansong from the Carifta Games as she pursues other loftier goals but according to her coach, Ato Boldon, winning the award for the second year running will make his job a lot harder for 2020 to convince her not to go for another one.
“Well, last year I told her she wouldn’t win this year because I didn’t want her to double again. But then this year I wanted her to run more 200s and then the scheduling debacle got solved so it’s ironic that the performance that sealed it was probably the 22.89 which is fifth on the world list,” he said.
“I’m very happy for her but it will make it difficult to convince her next year to not try for three, which nobody has ever done. I have a year to work on that though.”
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