The Bermuda National Athletic Association has confirmed Suresh Black and Za’Kayza Parsons as the winners of its inaugural scholarship for the 2021-22 academic year.

Black and Parsons, both sprinters, will attend college in the United States, Black at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida, and Parsons at the University of Maryland. Both received a scholarship in the amount of $5,000.

“It is our hope that we can continue offering support to aspiring student-athletes that have come through our programme, provided that we have the funding to do so,” the BNAA board of directors said in a statement.

“This year, we are thrilled to be in a position to offer two scholarships and feel that both student-athletes will be great ambassadors for the sport — both on and off the track — and their goals and plans align to the BNAA’s objectives for enhancing the sport in Bermuda.”

The statement added: “Given the impact of the pandemic and the disruption to the athletics schedule worldwide, we saw that many of our athletes missed opportunities that would normally prompt scholarship offers or financial aid to help fund their transition towards a university degree and/or involvement in a university level athletic programme.

“The Carifta Games is one such event that, on a large scale, is a significant scouting event that for years has assisted our athletes transitioning to the next phase of their academic and athletic careers. Unfortunately, this event has been cancelled for the last two years due to the pandemic.

“We saw this scholarship as a way to help bridge that gap and acknowledge our athletes that embody the essence of a well rounded student athlete.

“We’d like to wish our scholarship winners much success for the upcoming school year, as well as all of the student-athletes set to attend university over the upcoming 2021-22 school year.”

Those athletes are (schools in United States unless stated): Tiara Derosa (Georgia Institute of Technology), Suresh Black (Valencia College), Za’Kayza Parsons (University of Maryland), Stephan Dill (Johnson C Smith University), Caitlyn Bobb (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), Mikal Dill (Johnson C Smith University), Nirobi Mills-Smith (Nottingham Trent University, England, Ryan Outerbridge (Franklin Pierce University), Keturah Bulford-Trott (Jacksonville University), Diarra-James Powell-Burgess (Clayton State University), Miniya Wainwright (Savannah College of Arts and Design), Isabelle Dutranoit (Wake Forest University), Kanzi Emery (University of Birmingham, England), Makayla Tucker (Syracuse University), Nathan Armstrong (Rider University), Jessie Marshall (St Mary’s University, Canada), Nick Pilgrim (University of Bath, England), Brunette Basden (Shaw University), Ashley Irby (Elon University), Destini Edwards-Hill (Franklin Pierce University).