National sprinters Ayanna Hutchinson and Darrel Brown are set to defend their 100m titles at the Morvant Jets Track and Field Games which takes off on Saturday and Sunday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo. Approximately 700 athletes from various clubs across the country are expected to participate in the two-day event. The host club will also be honouring its founder and former head coach, Franklin Francis, who established the club in 1967. Action starts at 9 am with the finals expected to run off at 2 pm each day. Events will be contested in six age categories for the juniors ranging from Under-9 to Under-17 and an Under-20 category for the boys only, and men's and women's categories for the seniors. All eyes will be on Hutchinson and Brown, who are the favourites to reclaim their respective sprint titles.
Hutchinson was the top local performer at the University of Technology (UTECH) Knights Track and Field International Classic at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica in April. The 2011 CAC 4X100m gold medallist finished second in the women's invitational 100m dash in 11.72 seconds, ahead of Jamaican Deandre Whitehorne (11.80). Jamaica's reigning World University Champion Carrie Russell (11.39) placed first. Brown, who has already dipped under the men's Olympic sprint "A" standard of 10.18, will headline the men's event. Also set to compete at the meeting are field athletes Gwendolyn Smith and Geraldine George. The duo are both in fine form and are favourites to win their events, following their golden performances in representing T&T at the World Masters in Athletics Championships in Jyvaskyla, Finland, in April. Smith nabbed gold in the javelin throw in the 45-49 age group with a throw of 41.59m, while Francis claimed gold in the same event in the 40-44 age group with a distance of 41.00m.