THE 2018 NOMINEES

Shericka Jackson: ATHLETICS

Shericka Jackson continued her rise to track and field prominence in 2018. Jackson had a remarkable year over the 200m, earning a silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in 22.18 seconds, winning the gold medal at the NACAC Championships in Toronto, and winning the event at the Jamaica International Invitational in Kingston. At the Paris Diamond League meet in June, Jackson ran a personal best 22.05 seconds to win the event. The Jamaica national champion also set personal-bests in the 60m and 100m events during the year. She ended the year ranked third over the 200m.

Alia Atkinson: SWIMMING

Alia Atkinson had another sensational year in the pool in 2018. First, the National Sportswoman of the Year and Jamaica flag bearer earned Jamaica’s first medal of the Commonwealth Games with silver in the 50m breaststroke. Then, at the CAC Games in Colombia, Atkinson took a double of gold medals, in the 100m breaststroke and the 50m butterfly in Games record times. She set a world-leading time for the short-course 100 metres breaststroke in Singapore with a time of one minute 02.74 seconds and broke her own short-course world record in the 50m breaststroke with a time of 28.56 seconds in Budapest. Atkinson’s eight gold medals in the 2018 series took her lifetime tally at the

FINA World Cup to 68 gold medals, making her fourth on the all-time list of gold medallists. She finished the year in a blaze of glory-winning two gold medals (the 50m and 100m breaststroke competitions) and earning bronze in the 100m individual medley at the FINA

(25m) World Championships.