WORLD 100-METRE record holder Asafa Powell leads a group of MVP athletes off the island en route to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic this morning.
Powell, the world's fastest man with his 9.77 world record run last summer, along with Olympic sprint relay gold medallist Sherone Simpson, World Champion-ship 100m silver medallist Michael Frater and Brigitte Foster-Hylton, a bronze and silver medallist from the past two World Championships, are the big names set to depart for the Feliz Sanchez Invitational this Saturday.
Powell, who ran a joint world leading time this year of 9.95 seconds at last weekend's Jamaica International Invitational, will compete in the sprint relay, while Simpson will start in the 200m, Frater in the 100m and Foster-Hylton, the 100m or 100m hurdles.
Nester Carter (100m), Mario Forsythe (200m), Kaleise Spencer (400m hurdles), Shericka Williams (400m), Herbert McGregor (long jump), Gregory Little (400m hurdles) and Markino Buckley (110m hurdles) are the other athletes down to depart with coach Stephen Francis and masseur Patrick Watson.
Meanwhile, later in the afternoon, sprinter Winston Smith will be heading off to Atlanta for a meet while assistant coach Paul Francis will accompany fellow sprinter Ainsley Waugh, who is down for a series of meets in Brazil.
Little will join Waugh in Brazil after Saturday's meet in Santa Domingo.
Some of the athletes who will participate in Santo Domingo will return on Sunday while the others will move on to Puerto Rico.
