Nearly 150 young athletes from 14 regional countries will be on show at this weekend's Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Age Group Championships at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo.
Defending champs Bahamas will seek to retain their title against a field including Aruba (8), Curacao (11), Turks and Caicos (11), Antigua and Barbuda (9), Grenada (5), Martinique (12), St Vincent & Grenadines (10), Barbados (11), British Virgin Islands (9), St. Lucia (11), Jamaica (11), US Virgin Islands (9) and Honduras (3).
It will mark the first time T&T hosts the event, which has been a launching pad for several current and past regional athletes since its inception in 1985. Over the years, its participants have included 2003 World 100m champion Kim Collins (St Kitts Nevis), 2000 Olympic and 2001 World Champion Debbie Ferguson (Bahamas), reigning World Junior long jump gold medallist Akela Jones (Barbados), and 2010 World Junior/2011 World Youth 400m winner Shaunae Miller (Bahamas).
At the 2013 edition in Curacao, Bahamas edged T&T and Barbados for the top prize and beat out Guadeloupe and Jamaica for the Girls' trophy. In the Boys' category, Venezuela finished ahead of Bahamas and T&T. The 2013 event saw 156 athletes from 22 countries turning out. Of those 22 countries, Venezuela, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Anguilla, St Maarten, El Salvador, St Kitts and Nevis and Bermuda will not be sending teams this year. Cuba were expected to participate but did not show up. There are reports that the Cubans had arrived in T&T for original date of the competition from June 27-28.
The Bahamians were the first of the 15 countries registered to arrive in T&T with the first batch of its 13-member contingent arriving on Thursday. Athletes will be housed at the Sir Arthur Lewis Hall-University of the West Indies, St Augustine.
The first event (Girls 11-12 60m) is set to get under way this morning at 9 am while the opening ceremony is scheduled later on at 2.30pm. The final event on the first day is the Mixed 13-14 4x100m relay listed to begin at 6.45pm. On Sunday the action starts at 9 am. The Closing ceremony is slated for 6 pm.
The 11-12 competitors will participate in five events over two days: 60m, high jump, ball throw (day one) and long jump, 800m-girls/1000m-boys (day two) while the 13-14 athletes will do battle over seven disciplines: 80m, long jump, shot put (day one) and 60m hurdles-girls/80m hurdles-boys, high jump, ball throw, 1000m-girls/1200m-boys (second day). Points will be awards after each event based on the IAAF Competition rule book and the CACAC Age Group combined events scoring tables. At the end of day one the athletes will participate in 11-12 & 13-14 mixed 4x100m relays.