By FRED STURRUP, NG Associate Editor

About two years ago, media personality and innovator extraordinaire Al Hamilton, a Jamaican who makes his home in London, approached a few close associates about the idea of a major event to salute the Caribbean sports heroes of the past 60 years and beyond. The response was quite positive and the Caribbean Awards Sports Icons Foundation was born.

Last Friday in the Ballroom of the Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston, the inaugural CASI spectacular came off. It was a resounding success. The presence of a few more world class athletic figures of past and present fame would have been a rather nice added flavor, but nevertheless the setting was excellent and the room was filled to near capacity with close to 300 guests and nominees.

The government of Jamaica was represented by Special Advisor Allie McNab, filling in for Sports Minister Olivia Grange. The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Cuba had a presence. A rather nice nucleus of Hamilton's friends and associates from the United Kingdom were in the house and it was simply an engaging Caribbean moment.

Hamilton deserves the highest salute for spearheading such a worthy happening. For generations, Caribbean athletes have been successfully enhancing the region's collective image with their demeanor and over the top athletic exploits against world competition. Unfortunately, we have not paid tribute to them in a meaningful way on a consistent basis.

Now, CASI is in place.

"I was really happy with the outcome. We had some little things that had to be worked out as was to be expected, but the event was a success and CASI now moves on, hopefully to The Bahamas in 2009," said founder Hamilton.

There were eight categories for awards. They included Football (Soccer), Boxing, Cricket, Athletics (female), Athletics (male), Netball, Sports Administrator/Coach and Spotlight on Beijing. The respective honorees this time among the list of nominees were: Cricket - Lindy Delapenha, Jamaica; Boxing - Mike McCallum, Jamaica; Cricket - Sir Garfield Sobers, Barbados; Athletics Female - Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jamaica; Athletics Male - Alberto Juantorena, Cuba; Netball - Jennifer Frank, Trinidad & Tobago; Administrator/Coach - Jack Warner, Trinidad & Tobago; and Spotlight On Beijing - Male Usain Bolt and Female Shelly-Ann Fraser. Nominees like our own Elisha Obed who was present, and Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, Avard Moncur and Chandra Sturrup who were not, were all saluted for being a part of the "Caribbean's Glorious Sports History" in the official booklet.

Speakers on the occasion all appealed to regional governments and corporate entities to partner with CASI to annually pay homage to the men and women who have excelled at the highest levels of world sports and accordingly lifted up the Caribbean before the world.

"An event of this kind only happens because like-minded persons come together to make a difference," said Hamilton. He plans to begin talks soon to determine the 2009 host nation.

Such was the success of CASI (1) that the idea of an expansion into a CASI week was thrown around. The idea could catch on. This first time, boxing was the lone added attraction, but in 2009, a track meet, a soccer match and a cricket classic could be a part of the celebration and saluting of our sports icons.

The boxing tournament, arranged by the Pan American Caribbean Boxing Organization, featured participants from the Jamaican Boxing Board of Control and the Amateur Boxing Federation of The Bahamas. There were four matches that pitted Jamaicans against Bahamians and the end result was a 2-2 tie. There was one unfortunate incident. In his light heavyweight bout with Kirmani Campbell, Shamaalye Lightbourne suffered a broken hand. He was treated in hospital and expects to be just fine.

In the three other nation vs. nation bouts, Bahamian light welterweight Carl Heild defeated Catoney Robinson; Bahamian super heavyweight Livingstone Saunders in his debut defeated Jerome Brandford and in a highly controversial match, Bahamian light welterweight Valentino Knowles was awarded less points than Oraine Walters.

Other bouts had the following results: Sanjay Burnside over Ricardo Carter; Kedrick Smith over Peter Roberts; Kenardo Brown over Christopher Haughton; Asanda Mullings over Rashaw Campbell; and Jamaro Nooks over Aaron Gabriel.