T&T’s Shaniqua Bascombe has been nominated for the 2025 Pan Am Sports Awards. Bascombe is among ten athletes (from seven sports) vying for the Sport Achievement Award.
The 22-year-old, who won the 2019 Carifta and NACAC (North American, Central American and Caribbean) Under 18 Girls 200m titles, raced to gold in the women’s 100m at the Junior (Under 23) Pan American Games in Asuncion, Paraguay, in August. The former St. James Secondary student was first across the line in 11.19 seconds to secure T&T’s lone title at the Games.
The Jamaican-based athlete will be against fellow Junior Pan Games champions. Cuban Yisnoly Lopez leads the way after she captured three gold medals in Canoeing in Paraguay, taking the top spot in the women’s C-One 200m and C-Two 500m and Mixed C-Two 500m events.
Natalia Linares (Colombia)-athletics, Joysi Tinoco (Nicaragua)-Karate, Ava Soon Lee (Haiti)-taekwondo, Henrique Marquez (Brazil)-taekwondo, Renzo Kai Fukuda (Peru)-fencing and Raquil Broaderick (Jamaica)-athletics are the other nominees.
The other award categories are: Best Male Athlete; Best Female Athlete; Sports; Best Male Team; Best Female Team; Fair Play; and Influencer Athlete.
The Pan Am Sports Awards were created in 2019 after the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima and were last held in 2023.
Multiple Olympic and World sprint champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica and Brazilian gymnast Franciso Barretto were the inaugural winners.
Voting for the 2025 Pan Am Sports Awards will take place on the website (www.panamsports.org) from December 2-21.
