Trinidad and To­ba­go is ex­pect­ed to field 75 ath­letes at the sec­ond edi­tion of the Ju­nior (Un­der 23) Pan Amer­i­can Jr Games in Asun­cion, Paraguay, from Au­gust 9 to 23. T&T’s Chief-de-Mis­sion of the Games, Jariel Mc Collins, says the lo­cal com­peti­tors par­tic­i­pate in 13 sport­ing dis­ci­plines – Archery, Ath­let­ics, Aquat­ics, Bad­minton, Cy­cling, Golf, Ta­ble ten­nis, Ten­nis, Triathlon, Sail­ing, Bas­ket­ball, Rug­by and Hock­ey.

Among the con­tin­gent are dou­ble World Ju­nior Cy­cling Cham­pi­onships sil­ver medal­list Makaira Wal­lace and French-based ta­ble ten­nis play­er Chloe Fraz­er.

Wal­lace, who won sil­ver in the women’s Keirin and time tri­als at the 2024 World Cy­cling Ju­niors in Lu­oyang, Chi­na, is ex­pect­ed to vie for the gold medal in the women’s match sprint, Keirin, time tri­al and team sprint events. She said she is ho­n­oured for the chance to ride the Red, White and Black again. “My goal is to rep­re­sent my coun­try with pride and per­form to the best of my abil­i­ty. I am putting in a lot of work lead­ing up to this (games). I am fo­cused on ex­e­cu­tion and stay­ing present in the mo­ment while I am rac­ing.”

Fras­er and Jor­dan Thong are this coun­try’s picks for women’s ta­ble ten­nis.

The 16-year-old has her hopes on earn­ing a medal in Paraguay. “My main goal is (to get on the) podi­um. I will be sat­is­fied with any medal. I do not have any Pan Amer­i­can medal. I have Caribbean medals. I would like to add that to my achieve­ments.”

Fras­er has been train­ing at the In­ter­na­tion­al Ta­ble Ten­nis Acad­e­my in France since 2023 with play­ers from Eu­rope, Africa and South Amer­i­ca.

At the first Ju­nior Pan Amer­i­can Games in Cali, Colom­bia, in 2021, T&T sent 23 ath­letes in eight sports and won two medals. Cousins Kelsey Daniel (men’s triple jump) and Tyriq Hors­ford (men’s javelin) were sec­ond and third, re­spec­tive­ly.

Mean­while, Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of the Pan Amer­i­can Sports Or­gan­i­sa­tion Ji­me­na Salde­na says the Paraguayans are ea­ger to host the Games.

Salde­na, who spoke at the sod-turn­ing cer­e­mo­ny for the start of re­fur­bish­ment work at the new home of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) at Robin­sonville Street in Bel­mont On Mon­day said, “We were there (in Paraguay) a few days ago for the Ju­nior Pan Am Games torch. Paraguay has a lot to give. You can feel that the peo­ple in Paraguay are ready to host us. That is very ap­peal­ing. I think it will be a very good games for our ju­nior ath­letes. More than 4000 ath­letes will be com­ing to Paraguay.”

Salde­na praised the host coun­try for invit­ing the com­peti­tors to the South Amer­i­can na­tion to train ahead of the Games. “We have train­ing camps pro­mot­ed by the or­gan­is­ing com­mit­tee of the Games to­geth­er with Pan Am Sports. Al­ready more than 1000 ath­letes have ben­e­fit­ed from this. We have more than 100 coach­es that were with their ath­letes. I think it has proven to be a very im­por­tant step that we plan to car­ry on to bring these young ath­letes all the way to the Pan Am Games in Li­ma (Pe­ru) in 2027.”