Cartagena COL - Ten days after the opening ceremony, the athletics events of the 20th Central American and Caribbean Games will commence on Tuesday 25 July, and will conclude on Saturday 29 July. This festival of sport is expected to be graced by the attendance of over a dozen Olympic and World Championship gold medallists.

Mexico’s Ana Guevara, Cuba’s Zulia Calatayud, Osleidys Menéndez, Yumileidi Cumbá, Yipsi Moreno, Yoandri Betanzos, Iván Pedroso and Panama’s Irving Saladino are some of the stars set to steal the show in the last week of the Games, currently dominated by Mexico, followed by Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela.

A new stadium with an eight-lane synthetic track was inaugurated last week, in the Pedro de Heredia Sports Complex, which hosts most of the 34 disciplines contested in the Games.

A region that claimed 18 medals at the 2005 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki will witness less than half of those athletes in Cartagena, according to the latest entries. Both youngsters and more experienced athletes want to please the crowd with memorable performances in their efforts to make the Americas Team for the IAAF World Cup in Athens, 16-17 September.

With Cuba back after its absence in El Salvador 2002, Cartagena will be much more competitive than four years ago, as it was in the 1998 Games in Maracaibo, which also served as a World Cup qualifier.

Birth place of stars

The Games mean a lot to the Central American and Caribbean countries as many of their stars started their international career in this the world’s oldest regional games. That is the case for the current Olympic and World medallists Ana Guevara, Osleidys Menendez, Zulia Calatayud and many others.

The participation of the Dominican Republic’s Olympic 400m Hurdles champion Felix Sanchez, recovering from injury, and the Bahamas’ World and Olympic women’s 400m champion Tonique Williams-Darling, not raced since 11 June, have yet to be confirmed. Two other Bahamians, 2001 World 400m champion Avard Moncur and Olympic and World 4x100m relay champion Chandra Sturrup are entered for the relays, as well as Jamaica’s quarter miler Novlene Williams, who ran 49.65 in Rome on 14 July.

Guevara, Saladino, Calatayud and Menendez set to shine

Guevara will be one of the 21 defending individual champions from El Salvador 2002. Having run 50.43 this season in Rome, her main aim is to smash the 18-year old 400m Games record of Cuban Aurelia Pentón, who ran 50.56 in Medellin, Colombia, in 1978. The Mexican star will return to the country where she first competed internationally, ten years ago at the Iberoamerican Championships in Medellín. The 29-year old from the Northern Mexican state of Sonora also won the 400m and 800m silver medals at the 1998 Games in Maracaibo, plus the 4x400m title in El Salvador.

Panama’s Irving Saladino, the Long Jump sensation of the season, is the only remaining Latin American contender for a share of the 2006 IAAF Golden League Jackpot. Six times over 8.40m in 2006, including a world leading 8.56m, the 2006 World Indoor Championships should seriously threaten the Games record of 8.45, set in 1998 by Cuba’s nine-time World and 2000 Olympic champion Ivan Pedroso, who will also be present in Cartagena.

The Bahamas will rely on two-time World Indoor Championships medallists Christine Amertil (400m), World and Olympic relay champion Sevatheda Fynes (100m), and 2004 World Indoor champion Dominic Demeritte (200m). Trinidad and Tobago is led by sprinters Aaron Armstrong and Kevon Pierre, as well as Olympic finalist Candice Scott in the Hammer Throw.

Jamaica announced a team of 44 athletes (24 men and 20 women), including 2006 Commonwealth Games medallists Kenia Sinclair, Jermaine Gonzales and Novlene Williams, NACAC Under 23 champion Ricardo Chambers and 400m hurdles specialist Dean Griffiths.

CAC Championships medallists Dorian Scott (Shot Put) Olivia McKoy (Javelin) and Natalie Grant (Hammer) are also in the list.

Other top names are Grenada’s two-time World Indoor 400m champion Alleyne Francique (400m), Panama’s World and Olympic 400m hurdles finalist Bayano Kamani, Cayman Island’s sprinter and Long Jumper Kareem Streete-Thompson, Puerto Rico´s sprinter Carol Rodriguez, as well as race walkers Eder Sanchez, Horacio Nava of Mexico and Cristina Lopez of El Salvador.

Among some of the youngest talents are 2005 World Youth Championships medallists Pole Vaulter Keisa Monterola of Venezuela and Triple and Long jumper Arantxa King of Bermuda.

Calatayud and Menendez lead the Cuban squad

Helsinki World champions Zulia Calatayud and Osleidys Menéndez lead the 60-member Cuban team, the largest of all registered for the Games, which features 10 World and Olympic medallists.

Calatayud, who attended the 1998 Games as a reserve relay runner, wants to beak her compatriot Ana Fidelia Quirot´s 20-year old 800m record of 1:59.00, following a successful campaign. “I am happy with my results in Europe this summer and I hope to be in a fast race to break Quirot´s time. I have good memories from Maracaibo, where Quirot had her last race”, stated Calatayud.

Menéndez is recovering well from the tibia pains she felt in her left leg which she sustained while on her European tour in June-July. “This is the only title missing in my career. I am not in my best form, but I am recovering well. I have a lot of confidence in myself and I will do my best to make this dream come true” said Menéndez, a runner-up as junior to Sonia Bisset at the 1998 Games.

At 35, Bisset is the oldest member of the Cuban team, but she has confirmed her winning ambitions in Cartagena following her 65.97-meter throw in Italy, on July 16.

The Island’s new sensation this year, Dayron Robles, will start as the top favourite at the 110m Hurdles. Robles, who clocked a world age best of 13.04 in Lausanne and posted two other swift times in Madrid (13.08) and Paris (13.11) aims to run faster than his training partner Anier Garcia’s record of 13.27, set in 1998.

Shot Put Olympic and 1998 CAC Games champion Yumileidi Cumbá, four-time World Championships medallist Yoandri Betanzos (Triple Jump) and two-time World champion and Olympic silver medallist Yipsi Moreno (Hammer Throw) are also expected to establish new standards in their respective events. Cumbá is a veteran from the 1993 Games in Ponce, as well as Venezuelan shot putter Yoger Medina, who along with 200m runner Juan Pedro Toledo of Mexico and Dominican Republic’s high jumper Juana Arrendel will try to win their third consecutive title, after winning in 1998 and 2002.

Over 500 athletes from 31 of the 32 member countries of the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organization (ODECABE) will be represented on the Cartagena track. Aruba is the only absentee.

Athletics is one of the seven original sports of the Central American and Caribbean Games, founded in Mexico City in 1926. In its 80th anniversary, 47 events will be contested, including the debut of the women’s 3000m steeplechase.

Here are the CAC Games records:

Men

100m 10.10 Silvio Leonard CUB 1978

200m 20.42 Leandro Peñalver CUB 1982

400m 44.27 Alberto Juantorena CUB 1978

800m 1:45.15 Alberto Juantorena CUB 1982

1500m 3:41.84 Eduardo Castro MEX 1982

5000m 13:49.89 Arturo Barrios MEX 1990

10000m 28:36.67 Pablo Olmedo MEX 2002

Marathon 2.14:23 Benjamín Paredes MEX 1993

3000m ST 8:38.43 Rubén García MEX 1993

110m H 13.27 Anier García CUB 1998

400m H 48.87 Dinsdale Morgan JAM 1998

HJ 2.37 Javier Sotomayor CUB 1998

PV 5.41 Dominic Johnson LCA 2002

LJ 8.45 Iván Pedroso CUB 1998

TJ 17.18 Yoelbi Quesada CUB 1998

SP 19.63 Yoger Medina VEN 2002

DT 70.20 Luis M. Delís CUB 1982

HT 74.25 Alberto Sánchez CUB 1998

JT 80.92 Emeterio González CUB 1998

Decathlon 8118 Raúl Duany CUB 1998

20km Walk 1.23:32 Daniel García MEX 1998

50km Walk 3.55:20 Edel Oliva CUB 1993

4x100m Relay 38.74 Cuba CUB 1986

4x400m Relay 3:02.41 Cuba CUB 1986

Women

100m 11.14 Chandra Sturrup BAH 1998

200m 23.01 Silvia Chivás CUB 1978

400m 50.56 Aurelia Pentón CUB 1978

800m 1:59.00 Ana F. Quirot CUB 1986

1500m 4:18.45 Letitia Vriesde SUR 1993

5000m 16:38.92 Dulce M. Rodríguez MEX 2002

10000m 34:06.16 Adriana Fernández MEX 1998

Marathon 2.42:29 Emma Cabrera MEX 1993

110m H 12.64 Dionne Rose JAM 1998

400m H 54.30 Deon Hemmings JAM 1998

HJ 1.97 Juana R. Arrendel DOM 2002

PV 3.90 Milena Agudelo COL 2002

LJ 6.61 Eloína Echevarría CUB 1986

TJ 14.34 Yamilé Aldama CUB 1998

SP 19.36 María E. Sarría CUB 1982

DT 63.76 María C. Betancourt CUB 1982

HT 61.46 Aldenay Vasallo CUB 1998

JT 56.63 Zuleima Araméndiz COL 2002

Heptathlon 5903 Magalys García CUB 1993

20km Walk 1:36:16 Victoria Palacios MEX 2002

4x100m Relay 43.89 Cuba CUB 1998

4x400m Relay 3:29.65 Cuba CUB 1998