PowellBUDAPEST, Hungary, CMC:
SEVERAL TOP-RATED Caribbean athletes will test their Olympic year championship form when they compete at the 10th IAAF World Indoor Championship this weekend.
The three-day meet starts today when the main attraction on opening day will be the mid-afternoon 60-metre finals for men and women, available live on CMC Television.
Debbie Ferguson, the Bahamian Olympic sprint relay gold medallist in Sydney and reigning Commonwealth Games sprint double champion, is the region's top entry in the women's 60m, while rising Jamaican star Asafa Powell leads the Caribbean bid in the men's sprint.
ANXIETY
With an eye towards Olympics in Greece from August 13 to 29, athletes at the meet are anxious to advertise their worth ahead of the great summer show.
The women's 60m round one will open competition on the track this morning and the field includes the irrepressible 37-year-old American Gail Devers, Christine Arron of France, Russian world leader Yuliya Tabakova, with a 7.06 second clocking, Belgium's Kim Gevaert, and Yuliya Nesterenko of Belarus.
For the Caribbean, there is Ferguson, Jamaican Brigitte Foster, Antigua's former Pan Am Games medallist Heather Samuel, Vincentian Natasha Mayers, the 2002 United States Collegiate 200m champion, and Valma Bass, of the United States Virgin Islands.
The 43-year-old Jamaica-born Merlene Ottey, now representing Slovenia, is also in the field though obviously not as potent as she was when she won three indoor titles many years ago - 200m titles in 1989 and 1991, and the 60m crown in 1995.
With last year's silver medallist Kim Collins of St. Kitts/Nevis, and Trinidad & Tobago's sensational teenager Darrel Brown opting out of the meet, Powell is the only realistic medal hope from the region.
The Jamaica-based 21-year-old impressed during the back end of last season, winning the Brussels Golden League 100m, and showed high quality indoors when winning the 60m - against a top-class field - at the Millrose Games in New York last month.
Race favourite there is Britain's Jason Gardener, who has dominated the world list this season with a best time of 6.46 seconds. Jamaican Olympic medallists James Beckford and Gregory Haughton, and world top-five ranked Germaine Mason (Jamaica), Alleyne Francique (Grenada), and Tonique Williams (Bahamas) are also listed to compete on opening day.
Beckford, a 1996 Olympic silver medallist, has long jump qualifying round action today, and there is qualifying round competition as well for his Jamaican teammate and reigning Pan Am Games champion Mason in the men's high jump.
In the heats of the 400m, Haughton and Davian Clarke from Jamaica, Francique, and Trinidad & Tobago's Ato Modibo, all former United States Collegiate indoor champions, are expected to be prominent, along with Bahamian Chris Brown.
In the women's race, Williams, rated No. 5 in the world, and the Jamaican pair of Ronetta Smith and Michelle Burgher, are on the start list for this morning.
The English-speaking Caribbean won five medals last year and unusually produced no champions, but it is poised to return to a more prominent showing this year, even with several of last year's medallists missing.
