Micah Pond, a netballer and footballer, and track athlete Elisha Darrell were the senior school winners of the 32nd Denton Hurdle Memorial Awards last night at Warwick Academy.

Selah Tuzo, a talented middle distance runner, and Nirobi Mills, a cricketer and track athlete, were the middle school winners while Ramiah Brangman and Joao De Sa won the primary school awards.

Pond, a student at CedarBridge Academy, is a member of the senior netball and football teams as well as the Under-20 football team. She has also represented CedarBridge in badminton, basketball, netball, softball, volleyball and track and field. Pond was a 2017 all-star in football, netball and basketball and is the Blue house captain. The honour roll student plays for the Devonshire Colts Under-16 boys team.

Honourable mention in the senior girls category went to Zakiyah Durham from Saltus. Durham is also a member of the senior women’s and under-20 national football team and was first alternate for the recent senior touring netball team.

Durham has represented Saltus in football, netball, basketball, volleyball, softball, track and field and badminton. She was the 2017 triple jump champion at the BSSF track and field championships and was also a football, netball and basketball all-star.

High jumper Elisha Darrell, of Berkeley, took the senior boys award. Darrell recently represented Bermuda in the high jump and long jump events at the Carifta Games where he agonisingly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish in the high jump. He also placed ninth in the long jump.

Darrell was crowned champion boy in the 2017 BSSF Track and Field Championships, sweeping all three jumping events. His present form has qualified him for the Pan Am Games.

Darrell is also a talented footballer, scoring four times in helping Berkeley win this year’s senior school boys Knockout Cup final. He is a consistent honour roll student, prefect and vice house captain at his school.

Honourable mention in the senior boys went to Brian Darling of Warwick Academy. The school prefect has attained 10 GCSE passes, seven with an A. He has been on the Principal’s Academic List from 2013 to 2017 and completed the bronze medal in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

Darling represents Warwick Academy in football, badminton, track and field, volleyball, and cross country. He is an all star in football and plays for the PHC Under-16 team.

Middle school girls winner, Tuzo, of Saltus Grammar School, is presently in Trinidad and Tobago representing Bermuda at the NACAC Age Group Track and Field Championships. Tuzo has won the past two KPMG Front Street Mile middle school races and was Bermuda’s only track athlete to medal at the 2016 CUT Track and Field Championships, winning gold in the 1500 metres at the Barbados Track meet.

Tuzo is a BSSF all-star in netball, football and cricket. She has been selected to train with the national Under-21 field hockey team and plays in the league for Budgies. She was the youngest member on Bermuda’s netball team in the Jean Pierre tournament in Barbados.

Tuzo also finds time to be involved in the performing arts and has a leading role in the school musical Legally Blond.

Honourable mention was awarded to Danni Watson from TN Tatem Middle School. Watson is head prefect, house captain and captain of various school teams. She has been a member of the principal’s list every term and has received the Most Outstanding Student award in all subjects.

Watson has represented TN Tatem on their winning football, hockey, softball and cricket teams. She is a member of the Under-15, Under-17 and Under-20 national football teams. She served as a guest player for IMG Academy in the IMG Cup and is also a member of the Under-14 Somerset Trojans boys team.

Mills, of Saltus Grammar School, is the middle school boys winner. He is also at the NACAC Championships.

Mills broke the Saltus school records in the 400 and 800 metres events and was Champion Boy. He has broken the Saltus school records in the 400 and 800m events. He was Champion Boy at the past three BSSF track and field championships. He also represented Saltus in cricket and basketball and is a member of Bailey’s Bay Senior men’s cricket team and was crowned the BCB Under-17 MVP. He is an Under-14, 17 and 19 National Academy player in cricket and will represent Bermuda in the Under-19s World Cup qualifying tournament in Toronto next month.

Honourable mention was presented to Matthew Elliott from Somersfield Academy and Seth Hardtman of Whitney Institute. Elliott is a current Under-15 national squad member in squash where in 2016 he placed fourth in the Under-13 division at the CASA tournament in the Cayman Islands.

Elliott is a member of the Devonshire Colts Under-14 team and the CP Athletic futsal team. Last year he attended the Dennison Cabral Futsal Academy in Baltimore.

Hardtman is a prefect, student council treasurer and Zuill House captain. He attended the 2016 All Star-Keystone Invitational basketball camp and has received MVP and most improved honours with the Wolfpack programme. He is a member of the BAA Under-14 team which won the 2017 Kappa Classic. He is a Principal’s honour student and received distinction in his grade 1 music theory.

Ramiah Brangman of West End Primary has already collected a great deal of silverware during a successful sporting year. She won all seven road races entered, including the KPMG Front Street Mile, Telford Magic Mile and the Freisenbruch-Meyer BUT Race.

Brangman was named Champion Girl in her age group at the BSSF Track and Field Championships for the last three years. She led West End Primary to team titles in football, netball, field hockey and cricket.

She scored a hat-trick in the football Knock Out Cup final and was an All Star in football, netball and cricket. She serves as Deputy Head Girl and is the Blue House captain. Brangman represents Pacers Track Club, Storm Netball Club and is a member of the new intake for the Under-15 national football team.

Honourable mentions were awarded to Adriana Argent from Warwick Academy and Dominique Brown from Gilbert Institute. Argent got the better of Brangman in winning the 2017 BSSF cross country championships. She is a former Iron Kids triathlon winner and is a training squad member of the Bermuda National Swim team.

Argent was a member of the BSSF winning rugby team and runner up in football and hockey. She serves as a prefect and a Hope Academy volunteer.

Brown is a prefect and honour roll student at Gilbert Institute and received academic achievement in science, maths, literacy, music and social studies. She represents Hamilton Parish in football, Sandpipers in hockey and is a member of Skipper’s Martial Arts School. She is a junior champion in weapons, sparring and kata.

Joao De Sa of Purvis Primary, excelled both in academics and sports in 2017.

The Head Boy is an honour student and Gibbons House captain. He has won first place for six consecutive years in the Purvis Primary Science Fair.

De Sa represents Purvis in football, track and field and cross country. His main passion is football and plays for PHC Under-10 Blacks.

In December he participated in the Powerade Football Tournament in Barcelona, Spain and will be attending a week-long training camp at AFC Bournemouth in the UK

Honourable mention awards were given to Jannis Roberts from St George’s Preparatory and Rajae Whitter from Prospect Primary. Roberts has captained his school team in football, rugby, hockey and cricket.

The school prefect and house captain has been an honour student for the last three academic school years. He recently broke the BSSF record in the over 10 boys cricket ball throw. Roberts plays for ABC football and Prep Stars cricket team and represented the island in the Mustangs Invitational baseball tournament in Welland, Canada. He is a graduate of the Endeavour sailing programme.

Whitter is the Head Boy, prefect and house captain at Prospect Primary.

He plays for Devonshire Colts football team and the Bailey’s Bay cricket team. Whitter represented Bermuda at the CUT games in 2016, competing in the long jump. He is also a 50cc motocross champion.

Roger Lee Jr, a Bermuda international footballer and winner of the Denton Hurdle Awards as a primary school student in 2002, was the guest speaker. Lee, a semi-professional footballer in England, urged the nominees to “remain focused, work hard in your [school] assignments and choice of sport and always represent yourself well because you never know who is watching you”.

Derek Hurdle Sr, brother of Denton, thanked the Denton Hurdle committee for carrying on the Denton Hurdle Awards for 32 years.