La Habana CUB - Eight Cuban athletics stars were inducted into the Central American and Caribbean Confederation (CACAC) Hall of Fame, in a ceremony held this Saturday at Havana's Hotel Nacional.

CACAC president Víctor López and IAAF Council member and North, Central America and Caribbean Area representative Neville McCook awarded Olympic medallists Silvia Chivás, Maria Caridad Colón, Enrique Figuerola, Silvio Leonard, Alberto Juantorena y Ana Fidelia Quirot, as web as administrator and IAAF Technical Committee member Jesús Molina and Dr. Ricardo Pérez, the inaugural CACAC president in 1966.

The meeting was also attended by Cuban Olympic Committee president José Ramón Fernández, Cuban Minister of Sports Humberto Rodríguez as several Olympic champions like Iván Pedroso and Javier Sotomayor.

"The Hall of Fame project emerged with the aim of educating and preserving our former great athletes' glory and passing their history to the younger generations", said López.

IAAF representative McCook added that the awardees are "individuals who have brought great joy and satisfaction to the sport of track and field. I have no doubt that the foundation laid by those individuals have contributed to the formation and growth of Cuban athletics worldwide. I share the joy of the awardees and once again, I am extremely happy to be present for this celebration of track and field athletics".

On behalf of the decorated athletes, Alberto Juantorena stated that "this award is not a personal merit, but a recognition to the team work and many who have devoted their lives to the sport in the Revolution".

Juantorena won a historic 400-800 meter golden double in Montreal 1976, breaking the world record with a 1:43.50-minute performance in the two-lap race. With the Juantorena double, the Caribbean won the four titles from 100 to 800 meters in Montreal, including Trinidad and Tobago's Hasely Crawford in 100 and Jamaica's Donald Quarrie in 200.

Today, Juantorena is the president of the Cuban Athletics Federation, a member of the IAAF Council, vice-president of the Cuban Olympic Committee and the National Institute of Sports.

Colon became the first Latin American woman to clinch an Olympic title when winning the javelin final in Moscow 1980. She is now part of the IAAF Women's Committee.

In more than two decades of a successful career, Quirot won two world titles at 800 meters in Göteborg 1995 and Athens 1997, and two Olympic medals: silver in Atlanta 1996 and bronze in Barcelona 1992. She also ranks third with 1:54.44 in the all-time list.

Figuerola won the first Olympic medal for the Island in 16 years, when finishing second in the 100-meter final in Tokyo 1964. He added a silver anchoring in the 4x100 relay final in Mexico City 1968.

Chivas claimed two Olympic bronze medals in Munich (100 and 4x100 meters), breaking the world junior record with 11.18 in the individual race.

Leonard, an Olympic 100-meter silver medallist in Moscow 1980, is the only Spanish-speaking man to have ever ran under 10 seconds in the classical race, when clocking 9.98 in 1977, only 0.03 seconds off the then world record time (9.95) of US' James Hines.

"I am very satisfied to materialize this project in order to fill a vacuum in the history of Central American and Caribbean athletics, which has not been acknowledged as it deserves. These athletes have given so much glory to our region and it is now time to highlight their careers for the better of the present and future generations", explained CACAC president Victor Lopez.

The first athletes to be inducted into the Hall of Fame were scheduled on July 6 in St George's, Grenada, during the Central American and Caribbean Championships.

But the ceremony was postponed due to logistic and organization problems. Thus, the CACAC executive committee decided to host the first ceremonies in the athletes' own countries so that they could enjoy this recognition on home soil, added Lopez, a IAAF technical committee member and senior coach at the University of Rice in Houston, Texas, where he trains 400-meter hurdlers Andrea Blackett of Barbados, Allison Beckford of Jamaica, Yvonne Harrison and Yamelis Ortiz of Puerto Rico.

A third ceremony is scheduled on April 10, 2004 in Hamilton, Bermuda, where statisticians Bernard Lindley of Trinidad & Tobago and Rey O'Neal of the British Virgin Islands will enter the Hall of Fame.

The athletes from the Central American and Caribbean Confederation - a total of 30 countries- have won a total of 87 Olympic medals (17 gold, 39 silver and 31 bronze), as well as 101 medals in World outdoor Championships (28 gold, 33 silver and 40 bronze).

Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago lead the region's historic performance. CACAC athletes take part in the Central American and Caribbean Championships every other year since 1967, as well as the Central American and Caribbean Games every four years since 1926.

In their most recent performance in the Paris World Champs, the region clinched four titles: St. Kitts and Nevis' Kim Collins (100), Mexico's Ana Guevara (400), Dominican Republic's Felix Sanchez (400 hurdles) and Cuba's Yipsi Moreno (hammer throw).

Two more ceremonies are scheduled on April and May during the Carifta Games in Hamilton, Bermudas, and the Mexican Grand Prix in Xalapa, respectively.