Best honoured along with Caribbean elite
By Stephen Wright
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Clyde Best: The former West Ham star was honoured at last week's second annual Caribbean Awards Sports Icons ceremony in the Bahamas.
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Bermuda football legend Clyde Best beat off competition from ex-Manchester United star Dwight Yorke to win a top award at the second Annual Caribbean Awards Sports Icons (CASI) ceremony.
Former West Ham striker, Best, received the prestigious award for football ahead of Leroy (Uncle Lee) Archer from the Bahamas, ex-Jamaica international Theodore Whitmore and Trinidad stalwart Yorke at last week's banquet, held in the Bahamas.
The annual event seeks to highlight the Caribbean's top athletes in the region's more popular sports such as football, cricket and track and field over the last 70 years.
Best, who was unable to attend the banquet, said he was honoured to have been selected ahead of such an esteemed player as Yorke who only recently retired from the professional game.
"I retired from football a long time ago so to still be picking up awards is a bit special for me," said Best, who played for the Hammers from 1968 to 1976.
"Obviously I was in pretty good company as Dwight Yorke was in the same category and it's fantastic that I won."
This year's winners also included Brigitte Foster-Hylton (athletics), Sir Vivian Richards (cricket), Mychal Thompson (basketball), Mike Fennell (administrator/coach), Javier Sotomayor (male athletics) and Emile Griffin (boxing).
Sir Durward Knowles, Thomas Augustus Robinson and the members of the original Bahamian 'Golden Girls' team received accolades, while Knowles was given the International Sailing Extraordinaire award for his accomplishments on the international arena in sailing.
Robinson and Golden Girls members Savetheda Fynes, Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, Chandra Sturrup, Eldece Clarke-Lewis and Pauline Davis-Thompson were all honoured with lifetime achievement awards.
