Port-of-Spain TRI - A total of 487 athletes from 23 countries will start the 17th Central American and Caribbean Junior and Youth Championships, to be held Friday-Sunday at the Hasely Crawford stadium in this capital.

Jamaica, defending champion Mexico and the host country will compete with the largest teams in an event seen as a tune-up for the 11th IAAF World Junior Championships, to be held August 15-20 in Beijing, China.

Jamaica will be represented by 70 athletes, 42 juniors and 28 in the Under-17 category.

The squad features three 2004 Grosseto World Junior Championships medallists: Schillonie Calvert (4x100m relay), Sonita Sutherland (400m), and Sherene Pinnock (400m hurdles).

Sonita Sutherland is the fastest junior woman in the 400m, with 51.13, while Calvert has posted the world’s third quickest this season with her 11.21 at the National Senior Championships in Kingston, in late June.

Men have also excelled in the first semester of 2006, with Josef Robertson running 50.24 seconds in the 400m hurdles and Tarik Edwards and Alain Bailey with wind-aided leaps over 7.50.

Also on the track, Edino Steeley has posted respectable times in the 200 (20.75) and 400 meters (45.81), third in the world at both events.

Another half lap and full lap specialist, Allodin Fothergill, shows notable clockings of 20.81 and 46.33 over both distances.

Trinidad and Tobago, hosting the event for the second time after organizing it in 1994, will compete with 58 athletes, led by Rhonda Watkins, the world’s leading junior long jumper in 2006 with a national junior record of 6.56.

The UCLA student will defend her CAC titles at both the High and Long Jumps she won in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, in June 2004.

A year later, she took the High Jump and grabbed the Long Jump bronze at the 2005 Pan American Junior Championships in Windsor, Canada.

Thrower Annie Alexander will defend her Shot Put title from 2004, a year when she set the CAC junior record of 15.74 and finished 10th in Grosseto.

Other top athletes are Barbados´ Ryan Brathwaite, the 110m hurdles silver medallist at the 2005 World Youth Championships in Marrakech, and Bermuda’s Arantxa King, who took the Long Jump gold in that Moroccan city.

Some 2005 Pan American Junior medallists are expected to highlight the three-day event, such as Barbados´ Terry Marshall (bronze in the 400m hurdles), Bermuda’s Latroya Darrell (silver in the High Jump), Bahamas´ Tracy Morrison (bronze in the Javelin), and walking champions, 15-year old Marco Antonio Rodríguez of El Salvador and Jamy Franco of Guatemala.

Mexico, the defending champion, sent a large team, which includes defending 800 champion Cristina G. Guevara and José Sánchez, fourth at the junior race of the 2006 IAAF Race Walking World Cup in La Coruña.

Some under 17 or under 20 gold medallists from Coatzacoalcos are registered for this weekend’s festival: Jamaica’s Vanessa Boyd (800m-U17), Anasthasia Leroy (4x100m-U20), Nicholas Gordon (Long Jump-U17) and Cawayne Jervis (4x100-U17), as well as Trinidad and Tobago’s Renny Quow (400m-U20), Jamaal James (800m-U17) and Angilla´s 2005 World Youth Championships sixth place finisher Shara Proctor (Long Jump-U17).

“Veterans” from the 2002 Champs in Bridgetown are Jamaica’s Josef Robertson (400m H), Alain Bailey (Long Jump), Mexico’s Cristina Guevara (800-1200m), Trinidad and Tobago’s Rhonda Watkins (High Jump and Long Jump), Bermuda’s Latroya Darrell (High Jump-Triple Jump) and Bahamas´ Tracy Morrison (Javelin).

A long list of 2006 Carifta Games champions are in this capital to show their progress en route to the World Junior Champs.

The men’s field features: Trinidad and Tobago’s Rennie Quow (400m), Jamaal James (800m), Garvin Nero (800m-U17) Annie Alexander (Shot)

Some of the Carifta winners from Jamaica are Schillonie Calvert (100m), Yohan Blake (200m), Sonita Sutherland (400m), Bobby-gaye Wilkins (800m), Kimberley Laing (100m H), Sherene Pinnock (400mH), Josef Robertson (400m H), Kimberly Williams (Triple Jump), and Raymond Brown (Shot).

The Island’s Carifta Youth winners present here are Dexter Lee (100m), Akino Ming (400m), Latoya McDermott (400m), Natoya Goule (800m), Rosemarie Carty (100m H), Shana-Gaye Tracey (300m H), Misha-Gaye DaCosta (High Jump) and Jerome Myers (Long Jump).

The list of winners from other countries is small: Bahamas´ Sheniqua Ferguson (200m), Bermuda´s LaTroya Darrell (High Jump), Anguilla´s Shara Proctor (Long Jump) and Barbados´ Ryan Brathwaite (110m H).

Cuba will miss the CAC Champs for the second consecutive time. Registration from Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, the Netherland Antilles, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize, Montserrat and the Dominican Republic was not received.

A new Mondo track was installed on the Hasely Crawford National Stadium, named after the country’s first and only Olympic gold medallist (100m gold in Montreal´76).

The CAC Junior Championships was inaugurated in Maracaibo, Venezuela, in 1974. The Under 17 category was added from the 1978 edition in Xalapa, Mexico, a decade before the IAAF World Junior Championships was inaugurated in Athens, Greece.

The CAC Junior Champs is the second oldest regional event for athletes aged under 20 years, after the European Junior Champs, created in 1964.

In 2004, Mexico dominated the youth category with 34 medals (12 gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze), followed by Jamaica (9-3-5), Puerto Rico (5-6-9), Trinidad and Tobago (4-4-1), Bahamas (2-4-6) and Barbados (2-2-0).

Among juniors, Mexico prevailed, too, with 40 medals (11 gold, 14 silver and 15 bronze), closely followed by Trinidad and Tobago (10-5-2), Jamaica (8-7-5), Puerto Rico (5-6-6), Antigua and Barbuda (2-1-0), Barbados (2-0-1), Bermuda (1-2-1) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1-1-1) and Saint Lucia (1-1-0).

In total, athletes from 17 of the 23 participating countries present in Coatzacoalcos reached the podium.

For further details and results, please click on http://www.cfpitiming.com or http://www.cacjuniorchamps2006.com/index.htm.