Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Lester Spaulding (left), chairman and managing director of the RJR Communications Group, and Carreras Group Managing Director Michael Bernard look at the Sportswoman of the Year trophy at yesterday's press conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.
Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
THE ANNUAL Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year awards ceremony will now be staged under the banner of the RJR Communications Group.
Chairman and managing director of the RJR Communications Group, Lester Spaulding, made the announcement at a press briefing held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel yesterday.
"We will do so with the staging of the 45th annual awards ceremony this year and we have agreed that the formula that has made these awards successful for 44 years must be striking the right balance and having the correct values to have existed for so long," Spaulding said.
The move by RJR follows the bowing out of long-time sponsors Carreras. Changes in the advertising and promotions regulations now preclude manufacturers and distributors of the tobacco products handled by Carreras from being involved in sporting events.
Chairman Michael Hall and other members of the current board of the Carreras Foundation have been asked by RJR to continue in their positions. Two senior RJR employees, Operations Manager Gary Allen and head of marketing Lloyd Pusey, will join them as non-voting members.
The RJR chairman said the process of selecting nominees will not be changed at this time, if at all.
"We emphasise that we are here to simply ensure continuity in a clear tradition of excellence," he added.
There was a symbolic handing over of the main trophies by Carreras' Managing Director Michael Bernard to Spaulding.
The date and nominees for this year's awards ceremony will be announced next Friday.
Also present at yesterday's function were foundation board members Hall, Mike Fennell, Ed Barnes, Myrtle Weir, Vilma Charlton and Eugene Ffolkes.
