By Tony Becca - From The Boundary 
THE Carreras Sports Foundation's Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Award takes place tomorrow evening at the Pegasus Hotel and once again it should be a wonderful occasion.
It should be a wonderful occasion because the nation will be toasting the nation's best during 2002 and moreso because the parade of stars, as usual, will include men and women like 400-metre runner Michael Blackwood and hurdler Brigitte Foster who are numbered among the world's best.
To each and every one of them, to track and field athletes Blackwood, James Beckford, Claston Bernard, Maurice Wignall, Ian Weakley, Foster, Juliet Campbell, Tanya Lawrence, Lorraine Fenton, Lacena Golding, Elva Goulbourne, Vonette Dickson, Veronica Campbell, and Debbie Ann Parris, to cricketers Christopher Gayle, Wavell Hinds and Marlon Samuels, footballer Ricardo Fuller, jockey Trevor Simpson and swimmer Janelle Atkinson, many thanks for maintaining Jamaica's rich tradition in sport.
Remembering the rule that prevents the nomination of any who, regardless of performance, is guilty of indiscipline and who therefore tarnishes the name of Jamaica, many thanks also for being splendid ambassadors of the Jamaican people.
In a year during which Jamaica did so well, there are others who were outstanding - others who, because the list is limited to 10 in each category, were not nominated but who also should be remembered.
Numbered among those are Jermaine Lawson - the young fast bowler who made an impressive debut for the West Indies and who, in a fantastic spell, took six wickets while not conceding a run in a Test innings against Bangladesh, Nigella Saunders - the badminton player who won the triple at the Central Amercian Games, and Tasha Cooke - the hockey star who scored 11 goals and piloted Jamaica to second place at the same games.
As far as some fans are concerned, there is one question, and it is this: why was Usain Bolt, the winner of the 200 metres at the World Junior Games, not nominated as one of the 10 top sportsmen of the year?
That, however, is easy to answer.
The nominees for the sportsman and sportswoman of the year must come from the country's best, according to the criteria for selection, the nominees are selected based on performance starting at the highest level, and as promising as Bolt is, as brilliant as his performance was, he was not one of the country's best and did not perform at the highest level.
There is no age restriction to represent Jamaica at the senior level, and if Bolt, regardless of his age, was one of the fastest, he would have represented Jamaica, not only at the junior level but also at the senior level - at the Commonwealth Games and the CAC Games.
Bolt made an impact, there is no question about it - and his explosive run really brought the huge crowd to its feet and left them in ecstasy. For that performance, he will, like so many outstanding junior sportsmen and sportswomen in the past, receive a special award.
The reason why the Carreras Sports Foundation Sportsman and Sportswomen of the Year Awards has been so wonderful, so eagerly awaited every year is because it is a parade of the best - because a junior athlete who can run faster than senior athletes cannot be nominated for the award, because the award is based on performance, on results from the highest level down, and not on emotions.
