T&T hep­tath­letes Gi­an­na Paul and Kaori Rob­ley will be the first from this year's Carif­ta Games team to see ac­tion when the 51st edi­tion of the Games be­gins Sat­ur­day morn­ing at the Ki­rani James Ath­let­ics Sta­di­um in St George's, Grena­da.

Paul and Rob­ley are both sched­uled to be­gin their girls' Un­der-17 hep­tathlon com­pe­ti­tion at 9 am, start­ing with the 100-me­tre hur­dles event.

Paul, 17, a mem­ber of lo­cal club Con­corde Ath­let­ics Club, is a fresh­man stu­dent-ath­lete at High Point Uni­ver­si­ty in North Car­oli­na and a two-time North Amer­i­can, Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Ath­let­ic As­so­ci­a­tion (NACAC) U-18 cham­pi­on in the event.

She goes in­to this year's Carif­ta Games in good form as in Feb­ru­ary she was named the women's in­door "Fresh­man of the Year" for her Col­lege.

Mean­while, Rob­ley who rep­re­sents Kaizen Pan­thers on the lo­cal cir­cuit, won the event at the re­cent T&T Carif­ta Tri­als held ear­li­er this month, with a points tal­ly of 3,868.

With­in the first ses­sion of day one of this year's Games, T&T could mount the prize ros­trum in at least two events.

Con­corde high jumper Tenique Vin­cent, who placed fourth in the U-17 girls' event at the 50th Carif­ta Games in Nas­sau, Ba­hamas last year, will try again to medal this time in Grena­da. She is joined in the high jump fi­nals by Zenith Ath­let­ic Club's La'Shiya Big­gart. That event be­gins at 9.03 am.

With sev­er­al of the ath­letes un­der his im­me­di­ate guid­ance ex­pect­ed to be­gin com­pe­ti­tion on day one, T&T mid­dle and long dis­tance coach Der­rick Si­mon was the first to take his group out to train­ing at the com­pe­ti­tion venue on Fri­day morn­ing.

"So ba­si­cal­ly this is just race prep ac­tiv­i­ty. Noth­ing far and apart from what they're ac­cus­tomed to. But it's just to sharp­en them up, get them men­tal­ly in the game, stay fo­cused and aligned with the goals that we have been prepar­ing for," he said.

"They are ready. We had a good night's rest and we went through the rig­ors of be­ing dis­ci­plined and do­ing the right things they are sup­posed to be do­ing so I know they are ready."

De­fend­ing boys' U-20 5,000m cham­pi­on Ta­fari Wal­dron will mount his ti­tle de­fense in the event on Mon­day but be­fore that, he seeks to bet­ter his sixth place fin­ish last year in the 1,500m at 5.35 pm to­day.

Speak­ing at Fri­day's train­ing ses­sion he said, "I feel con­fi­dent in my­self be­cause I have been prepar­ing well. I am much stronger this year, I am much bet­ter so it's just to come out and ex­e­cute. The track is fast, it feels smooth, I am fresh and I am ready."

Mean­while, Kayleigh Forde, a sil­ver medal­list in the U-17 girls 1,500m in 2022 when the games were held in Kingston Ja­maica would al­so like to avenge a dis­ap­point­ing meet in 2023 where she went with­out a medal.

Sat­ur­day, she races in the U-20 girls' 1,500m fi­nal from 5.25 pm and said she's al­so con­fi­dent ahead of her race.

"My first year I was re­al­ly good, I didn't get to medal last year but my goal for every year is just to do my best and try and get a PB (per­son­al best). But you know, it's al­ways how it is on the day, you nev­er know the con­di­tions so I am just go­ing in with mea­sured ex­pec­ta­tions."

The girls' U-17 shot put fi­nals fea­tures high­ly-rat­ed 16-year-old throw­er Pey­ton Win­ter who copped the sil­ver medal in the same event at last year's Games in Nas­sau with a throw of 13.66m.

Win­ter, al­so a NACAC U-18 cham­pi­on, holds a per­son­al best of 14.53m which she pro­duced at last year's NACAC Cham­pi­onships in La Sa­bana, San Jose, Cos­ta Ri­ca, and is ex­pect­ed to pro­duce a bet­ter re­sult in Grena­da.

Day one ac­tion at the Games will al­so bring the 100m sprints in­to fo­cus with first-round heats tak­ing place across both di­vi­sions - U-20 and U-17 - in the morn­ing ses­sion.

Team TTO will be well rep­re­sent­ed, with two ath­letes each in the boys' and girls' U-17 and the boys and girls U-20 heats.

Mean­while, the 400m semi­fi­nals, com­menc­ing at 10.50 am will bring the open­ing ses­sion to a close on day one.

Team TTO Carif­ta Games Sched­ule

Day 1 - Morn­ing Ses­sion

Girls' U-17 hep­tathlon (100mH), 9 am: Gi­an­na Paul, Kaori Rob­ley

Girls' U-17 high jump fi­nal, 9.03 am: Tenique Vin­cent, La’Shiya Big­gart

Girls' U-17 shot put fi­nal, 9.13 am: Pey­ton Win­ter

Girls' U-17 100m heats, 9.25 am: Tian­na Richard­son, Xi­ah To­bias

Boys' U-17 100m heats, 9.45am: Kadeem Chi­napoo, Cameron Pow­ell

Girls' U-20 100m heats, 10.05 am: Alexxe Hen­ry, Sym­pho­ny Patrick

Boys' U-20 100m heats, 10.25 am: Dy­lan Woodruffe, Nikhil By­er

Boys' U-20 Oc­tathlon long jump, 10.28 am: Dar­ius Moore, Je­re­mi­ah Fran­cis

Girls' U-17 hep­tathlon (high jump), 10.33 am: Gi­an­na Paul, Kaori Rob­ley

Girls' U-17 400m semi­fi­nals, 10.50 am: Kyah Hyson

Boys' U-17 400m semi­fi­nals, 11.05 am: She­zlon Gor­don, Khor­dae Lewis

Boys' U-20 400m semi­fi­nals, 11.35 am: Dashaun Leza­ma, Kyrell Thomas

Team TTO Carif­ta Games Sched­ule

Day 1 - Af­ter­noon Ses­sion

Girls' U-17 100m semi­fi­nals, 4 pm

Boys' U-20 dis­cus fi­nal, 4.03 pm: Jay­don Nedd

Girls' U-20 triple jump fi­nal, 4.08 pm: Keneisha Shel­bourne

Boys' U-20 Oc­tathlon (shot put), 4.13 pm: Dar­ius Moore, Je­re­mi­ah Fran­cis

Boys' U-17 100m semi­fi­nals, 4.15 pm

Girls' U-20 100m semi­fi­nals, 4.30pm

Boys' U-20 100m semi­fi­nals, 4.45pm

Girls' U-17 1,500m fi­nal, 5.05 pm: Shi­an Lewis, Aniqah Bai­ley

Boys' U-17 1,500m fi­nal, 5.15 pm: Jaden Alexan­der, Isa­iah Alder

Girls' U-20 1,500m fi­nal, 5.2 5 pm: Kayleigh Forde

Boys' U-20 1,500m fi­nal, 5.35 pm: Omari Thomp­son, Ta­fari Wal­dron

Girls' U-17 400m fi­nal, 6.10 pm

Boys' U-17 400m fi­nal, 6.20 pm

Girls' U-20 400m fi­nal, 6.30 pm

Boys' U-20 400m fi­nal, 6.40 pm

Girls' U-17 hep­tathlon (200m), 6.45 pm: Gi­an­na Paul, Kaori Rob­ley

Girls' U-17 100m fi­nal, 7.05 pm

Boys' U-17 100m fi­nal, 7.10 pm

Girls' U-20 100m fi­nal, 7.15 pm

Boys' U-20 100m Fi­nal, 7.20 pm