Rose, left, and McLaughlin
Raymond Graham, Freelance Writer
IN a change of tradition, the National Junior Track and Field Athletics Championships is set to begin at the G.C. Foster College today and end tomorrow. It will be the first time that these championships will be held on a Sunday, a decision which was taken at the last Annual General meeting of the JAAA.
The championships was held earlier this time around so as to ensure that the athletes are selected for the Junior CAC Games which will be held in Mexico between June 24-26. This is the same weekend of the National Senior Championships.
When competition gets going at 10:30 a.m. with the heats of the Girls' Under-17, athletes will be hoping to display their best performance as they seek places on the team to Mexico and the World Junior Championships, which will be held in Italy in the middle of July.
The public will not get a chance to see its two best young athletes in the island as World Junior 200 metres record holder, Usain Bolt, and National Junior female 200 metres champion Simone Facey of Vere Technical, will not be on show.
Bolt, who was excused from the meet to compete in Europe, has still not recovered from injuries which stalled his debut run on the circuit earlier this week. Facey suffered a slight injury a few weeks ago and she too will miss the championships this weekend.
Despite the absence of Bolt and Facey, competition should be of the highest level and this will even make it more competitive for athletes in both the Under-17 and Under-20 age groups.
Today the final of both the boys and girls 100 metres in both age categories are on and it is expected that both these finals should be very exciting.
With the absence of Facey in the Girl's Under-20 100 metres the likes of Aneisha McLaughlin, Nickeisha Anderson and Tracy Ann Rowe should be the top contenders here with McLaughlin looking to utilise the advantage of Facey not being present to stamp her class.
In the boy's event, Camperdown's Remaldo Rose, who defeated his senior rivals at the Carifta Trials and who looked awesome at the Boy's and Girl's Championships, should dominate this event once again.
His former team-mate, Kevin Stewart, could give him a run for his money. However, if St. George's College's Tesfa Latty is fit, he could spoil the party. Undoubtedly the best male sprinter around at the junior level, Latty has been plagued with injuries. Kingston College's Andre Wellington is also expected to do well also.
Besides the 100 metres finals, there will aslo be the 1200m Under-17 girl's and 1500 metres for Under-17 Boys, Under-20 Girl's and Under-20 Boy's 1500m.
There will also be 13 field events finals today. These include the Under-17 Boy's Long Jump, Under-20 Boy's Discus, Under-17 Girl's Javelin, Under-17 Girl's High Jump, Under-20 Girl's Shot Put, Under-20 Girl's Triple Jump, Under-20 Boy's Javelin, Under-20 Boy's Long Jump, Under-20 Boy's High Jump and Shot Put Under-17 Boy's.
Today will also see the start of the Heptahlon and Pentathlon for Girl's and Decathlon for Boys. For The Girl's Under-17 will compete in the Pentathlon with Under 20 in the Heptathlon. Here Carifta Pentathon champion and automatic qualifier for this year's World Junior Champion Nadina Marsh of St. Jago will compete in the Heptathlon. At the recent Girl's and Boy's athletics Championships, Marsh who broke the Girl's Champion-ships record failed by just three points to break the National Junior record and she will be hoping for a super performance leading up to the World Juniors in Italy.
In the Boy's Decathlon, Boy's Championships Heptathlon champion, the very outstanding Wilbert Walker of Morant Bay High school will also be hoping for an outstanding performance in a bid to qualify for the World Juniors.
