NEWS FEED: 2018 Sportsman/woman of the Year ballot now complete + Usain Bolt’s Turkish possibility + Chris Gayle wins defamation court case

STAYING IN THE GAME: Is Usain Bolt moving to Turkey? The UK’s Daily Mail has reported that managers of football club Sivasspor have expressed interest in offering the retired sprint legend the opportunity to fulfil his dream of playing professional soccer. According to the report, the Turkish club could offer a deal to Bolt’s agent for the second half of the current European season. Sivasspor is currently ranked 12th in Turkey’s top division league. The 32-year-old sportsman, whose quest for a professional-football contract has seen him training with teams in Norway and South Africa (and more recently with Australia’s Central Coast Mariners) insists that this is something he seriously wants to pursue. “This is not about money,” Bolt says. “This is my dream.” 

PAID IN FULL: It’s time for Chris Gayle to collect! The Jamaican superstar batsman has won his defamation suit against Australia’s Fairfax Media, which published articles in 2016 alleging that Gayle exposed himself to a female massage therapist during the 2015 World Cup. A New South Wales court has awarded the veteran cricketer US$221,000 (J$28 million) in damages. Chris Gayle was represented at the hearing by his spokesman Grant Vandenburg, who told journalists, “All he wants to do is play cricket, and he’d really, really love to come back to Australia – a country that he loves as much as anywhere – and play in the Big Bash.” 

ELITE LEAGUE: Sunshine Girls’ MVP Shamera Sterling, athletics powerhouse Shericka Jackson and Olympic bronze medallist Hansle Parchment are the new additions to the list of nominees for the 2018 National Sportsman & Sportswoman of the Year Awards, being handed out by the RJR/Gleaner Sports Foundation on January 18 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston. Sterling joins a strong field that already includes Stafanie Taylor (cricket), Daniel Thomas-Dodd (track-and-field), Khadija Shaw (football), Janieve Russell (track-and-field), Aisha Praught-Leer (track-and-field), Shanieka Ricketts (track-and-field) Kimberly Williams (track-and-field), and record-breaking swimmer Alia Atkinson, while Parchment completes the ballot that also features Chris Binnie (squash), Ronald Levy (track-and-field), O’Dayne Richards (track-and-field) and Fedrick Dacres (track-and-field).

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