| Salandy killed in car crash |
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| Sunday, 11 January 2009 10:49 | |||
 PORT OF SPAIN – Trinidad and Tobago’s sporting fraternity was plunged into mourning Sunday when their women’s world boxing champion Jizelle Salandy died from injuries in single-vehicle crash.Salandy was 21 years old and held multiple international titles in the 154-pound light middleweight division. She died at Port of Spain General Hospital following a head-on crash into a concrete pillar in the vicinity of the NP overpass at Sea Lots entering the city at approximately 7:00 am. "She is gone, she is gone, she is no longer her with us," her distraught manager Boxu Potts said. "She lost control of the car and she was brought to the hospital and did not respond and she took her last breath right in front of my eyes. She is no longer with us," added Potts. Members of the Emergency Health Services (EHS) had arrived promptly on the scene and pulled out a bloodied Salandy who was still conscious. She was taken to hospital but while undergoing emergency surgery, Salandy, just three weeks shy of her 22nd birthday, died around 8:29 a.m., from massive head and internal injuries. Police officials said there was no indication that alcohol was a factor in the accident and suggested that the boxing star may have fallen asleep while driving. “There was nothing to suggest she may have been drinking. There is the probability that she also lost control of the vehicle,” said Fitzroy Frederick, the Assistant Police Commissioner (ACP Traffic). It is being reported that Salandy had just dropped off a friend at Piarco International Airport and was heading back to her apartment in West Trinidad in a black Toyota Yaris motorcar. Another passenger in the car, Trinidad and Tobago national woman footballer Tammie Watson, is in hospital nursing injuries. Hospital sources said Watson, a student of the Georgia Tech University in the USA, suffered two broken legs and internal injuries. Only nine days ago, Salandy repelled a spirited challenge from the Dominican Republic's Yahaira Hernandez on a Boxing Day card at the Jean Pierre Complex to retain her world titles. The T&T sports minister Gary Hunt gave one of the earliest tributes to the rising star he described as an icon. "The sporting fraternity...has lost a tremendous icon...not every day a country produces a national champion," Hunt told a news conference, adding that Salandy had been a "tremendous and great motivator to the young people in Trinidad and Tobago". Hunt pledged that the government was prepared to meet the funeral expenses of the deceased world champion. The car crash was the second in only four days involving prominent sporting figures in T&T. Sprint star Richard Thompson, a double Olympic silver medallist in Beijing last August, and girlfriend Monique Cabral, a member of the T&T team in Beijing, were involved in a collision on New Year’s Day. The 23-year old sprinter, recently named T&T's Sportsman of the Year for his exploits in Beijing, suffered a cut to the forehead, a blow to the knee and had also complained of neck pain. He spent two days in hospital before being released. Unbeaten in 17 professional fights, Salandy was widely regarded as one of the world’s most gifted female boxers. In November 2002, she became the youngest person on the planet to win a world boxing title at the tender age of 14 years, smashing a world record and because of the new change of the age laws in boxing that record will never be broken. On September 15, 2006, Salandy became the youngest boxer – man or woman -- to unify the two most prestigious titles in the world, the World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Council (WBC) world titles when she defeated Elizabeth Mooney on a seventh round knockout as an 18 year-old. Later that year, she shattered yet another world record by being the first boxer in the world to win six belts in one fight - the WBA, WBC, WBE, NABC, IWBF and WIBA titles. For these achievements, Salandy was named by Women Boxing Archive Network (WBAN) Top History Making Fighter for the Year 2006. She was also honoured T&T’s Sportswoman of the Year 2006. Last weekend, her manager Potts had told CMC Sport that his young star fighter was preparing to face American Angelica Martinez in late January in the first of a lucrative six-fight plan for 2009. Her victory over Hernandez two Fridays ago meant Salandy had retained her eight international belts, including the Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA), WBA and WBC titles. Salandy had been named 2008 “Boxer of the Year” by WIBA mainly for her win in March over previously unbeaten Karolina Lukasik. She would have turned 22 years old on Sunday, January 25.
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