The Nassau Guardian’s Senior Female Athlete of the Year

For just the second time in the last seven years, Shaunae Miller-Uibo is not the Nassau Guardian’s Senior Female Athlete of the Year, and it came after she produced one of the all-time great years by a Bahamian athlete in sports.

Miller-Uibo was edged by Jonquel Jones in the voting process, and really and truly, a judgement couldn’t have gone wrong for either one of them. Jones garnered two first-place votes among the three-member panel and finished with 29 points while Miller-Uibo got the other first-place vote and finished with 28 points.

Joanna Evans and Devynne Charlton, who both made global finals this year, were tied for third with 22 points apiece, and collegiate track star Brianne Bethel and women’s professional basketball player Lashann Higgs finished tied for fifth with 13 points apiece.

Jones established herself as one of the best female basketball players in the world, particularly in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in the United States, as she became the first Bahamian to be named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of a major professional sports league. The Grand Bahamian star earned 48 of 49 first-place votes, finishing as a near-unanimous selection as the WNBA MVP.

Jones was also named as the 2021 Associated Press’ WNBA Player of the Year after leading the Connecticut Sun to the best win/loss record in the 2021 WNBA season. They finished with a 26-6 record and earned the number one seed in the playoffs before being ousted by the Chicago Sky three games to one in the WNBA semifinals. The Sky eventually went on to win the WNBA title.

Jones won the WNBA Peak Performer Award for rebounding for the third time in her career during the 2021 season, leading the league in that category at 11.2 boards per game. It was the second time in her career she averaged more than 11 rebounds per game.

Jones finished tied for third in voting for the 2021 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, was an All-WNBA First Team member, and an All-WNBA Defensive First Team member.

In addition to the league-leading 11.2 rebounds per game, she averaged a career-high 19.4 points and 2.8 assists per game. She matched a career-high 1.3 steals per game. 

Jones finished fourth in the league in scoring and top 10 in blocks, steals and field goal percentage. She finished second in the 2021 WNBA MTN Dew Three-Point Contest and was named an all-star for the third time in her career.

Also, Jones won WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Month three times and was the player of the week four times.

Miller-Uibo was fantastic as well.

The Bahamian athletics superstar repeated as Olympic Champion in the women’s 400 meters (m), becoming the first Bahamian to win two individual Olympic gold medals, and the second woman ever to repeat as Olympic Champion in the women’s 400m, following Marie-José Pérec, of France, who accomplished the feat in 1992 and again in 1996.

Miller-Uibo solidified herself as the sixth-fastest woman of all-time in the women’s 400m, running a new area record of 48.36 seconds in the Olympic final in Tokyo, Japan. She became the first Bahamian to compete in two event finals in a single Olympics, climaxing the effort with her golden run in the women’s 400m.

Miller-Uibo finished as the world leader in the women’s 400m for the fourth time in the last six years. She produced the two fastest times in the women’s 400m in 2021 and was the only athlete to run under 49 seconds in that event.

The Bahamian track goddess took part in six races over five days and five races over three days at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, running in the final of both the 200 and 400m.

She ran national records in both the 200 and 400m indoors, 20.40 and 50.21 seconds, the latter of which was also a new area record in the 400m indoors.

Evans competed in two global meets in 2021, finishing seventh and eighth in the women’s 400 and 200m free, respectively, at the FINA Short Course (25 meters) World Championships and just coming up short of advancing past the opening rounds in those events at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

In the 200 and 400m free at the short course worlds, Evans swam times of 1:54.93 and 4:01.09 in the women’s 200 and 400m free, respectively, her third-best times in both of those events. She set new national records of 1:54.36 and 4:00.14 during the International Swimming League (ISL) Playoffs in 2021.

Long course, Evans was 18th overall in the women’s 200m free at the Olympics, swimming a new national record of 1:58.40 and just missing out on the top 16. In the 400m free, she finished 13th overall in 4:07.50, about two tenths of a second short of her national record of 4:07.33 that she swam at the Longhorn Aquatics Elite Invite and Time Trials in Austin, Texas, in May.

Evans has the top 17 times in the women’s 200m free among Bahamians in 2021, and the top nine times in the 400m free.

Charlton was also spectacular this year, advancing to the final of the women’s 100m hurdles at the Olympics and finishing sixth. It was the second straight Olympics in which The Bahamas had a finalist in the women’s 100m hurdles, and for the second straight Olympics, that athlete finished sixth.

Charlton ran 12.74 seconds in the Olympic final after running 12.84 seconds and 12.66 seconds in the rounds.

Charlton ran a new national record of 12.61 seconds at the USA Track & Field Golden Games in Walnut, California, in May, listing her as tied for 13th in the World Athletics rankings for 2021, and putting her just outside of the top 75 all-time. The Bahamian short hurdles specialist had 12 sub-13 second races in the women’s 100m hurdles this year – the most for any Bahamian female in a calendar year.

She also competed in the Diamond League in 2021, finishing second in the women’s 100m hurdles at the Golden Gala Diamond League Meet in Florence, Italy, in June. Charlton ran 12.80 seconds in that race.

Brianne Bethel, who qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the women’s 200m this year, and was a part of the Bahamian quartet that ran the women’s 4x400m relay at the Olympics, and women’s professional basketball player Lashann Higgs, who continues to make headlines in basketball overseas, finished tied for fifth for the Nassau Guardian’s Senior Female Athlete of the Year for 2021, with 13 points apiece.

The Nassau Guardian’s Senior Male Athlete of the Year for 2021 will be revealed tomorrow. 

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