but Paula Lewin may just make it three wins in a row on the women's side.

Smith, the first team sport member to win the award since its inception in 1980, didn't match his achievements of the previous year despite a promising start, but Lewin confirmed her place as one of the top female sailors in world match racing.

The 18th annual Sports Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, February 13 and telecast live on television starting at 7.30 p.m. It is then that the winners will be announced, the deliberations having already been made by a seven-member committee chaired by Director of Sports, Brenton Roberts.

Lewin's performances in 1998 included first place at the Santa Maria Cup in Maryland, first in the Reid and Barton Cup in Massachusetts and first in the Osprey Cup in St. Petersburg, Florida in December which confirmed her number one ranking in world match racing for women.

Lewin also became the first female skipper to qualify for the championship round of the Gold Cup, something she accomplished with an all-female crew of sister Peta Lewin, Leatrice Roman and Lisa Neasham.

Lewin has been the only female Athlete of the Year since women were first nominated separately from the men two years ago.

The men's category is more wide open this year with the likes of cyclist Elliot Hubbard, luger Patrick Singleton, triathlete Tyler Butterfield, sailor Malcolm Smith, runners Terrance Armstrong and Kavin Smith, and swimmer Stephen Fahy all likely to be in the running based on performances in 1998.

Bowlers Antoine Jones and Conrad Lister, who won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia, are also likely to be in contention. There have never been joint Athlete of the Year award winners.

The nominations for the five categories -- Athlete of the Year, Achievement, Appreciation, Special Achievement and Sport Citation -- began in late November with a live television programme when submissions were accepted. Before the deadline some 61 nominations were made, mostly by members of the public.

"Sixty-one is one of the highest we've had since the early years of the programme,'' said Roberts.

"Indeed, I admonished the sporting bodies on Saturday at the Annual Sports Conference about the fact that the majority of the nominations we get, we get from the public.

"I feel the national sports governing bodies and clubs can do more to search their histories and records and put people forward. I noted to them that many of the sponsors that they have have not been put forward for recognition.

"This year, for instance, we had just three that were put forward for recognition. That was of concern to me because on the one hand they are talking about sponsorship and on the other hand they are not putting forward the nominees.'' This year veteran cricketer Wendell Smith joined the committee as a replacement for long serving member Randy Benjamin who passed away last year.

Smith filled a non-Olympicc representative spot with Judy Simons moving from a non-Olympic representative to Olympic representative after being re-appointed on the Olympic Committee. Other members of the committee are Jean Atherden, Mike Cherry and journalists Mike Sharpe and Lawrence Trott.

"It was one of the most interesting array of candidates this year, who all performed significantly well during the awards year which made selections very difficult,'' said Roberts.