Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

The best of western Jamaica's track and field will be on show at the unfinished Catherine Hall Stadium in Montego Bay today as the top high school athletes from the parishes of St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, St. James and Trelawny are poised to match strides in the 2007 Milo Western Championships.

Elimination for these finals took place at St. Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) last week and a number of pundits are predicting that today's event, the western teams' last major event before the upcoming Grace Boys' & Girls' Championships, will be exciting.

"We won't be involved this year but I think it is going to be an exciting championships," said Courtney Hughes, coach of Mannings High School. "I think Herbert Morrison will be tops among the boys and STETHS among the girls."

If what unfolded at the same venue during the recent Milo Western Relays is anything to go by, the Claude Robinson-coached Herbert Morrison boys' team, which took the 'Top Male Team' award, should certainly stand tall.

"We saw this as a stepping stone towards what we plan to achieve during the course of this season," Robinson said in the aftermath of the MiloRelays. "Our objective is to produce athletes for the national team and we figure that if our athletes are good enough for the national team they should be able to do well at the local meets."

Strong contenders

While Herbert Morrison could face strong competition from the likes of Rusea's, a perennial strong contender, Trelawny's William Knibb, which sparkled in the Usain Bolt era, the consistent Cornwall College and STETHS, the dominant teams of the 70s and 80, could be unbeatable in events such as the Class Two 4x200m in which they ran a record 1:30:15 at the Milo Relays, and the 4x400m in which they also sparkled.

On the girls' side, in the absence of Mannings, it should be a wide-open affair with STETHS, Herbert Morrison and, possibly, St. James High the schools likely to steal the spotlight top honours.