Over 200 athletes drawn from 14 clubs and one school will participate today in the junior Carifta trials organized by the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG), public relations officer of the AAG Leeron Brummell disclosed yesterday.
The technical committee of the AAG had invited athletes from clubs and schools to the 2008 Junior Carifta Games trials which takes place today at the Police Sports Club ground at Eve Leary.
Brummell yesterday confirmed that the event will begin at 11am with the long jump competition billed for the Rudoplph Harper facility at the Thomas Lands YMCA ground.
Today’s trials will see the athletes participating in two categories, the under 20 (born 1989 and after) and the under-17 (born in 1992 and after).
Some 36 events are expected to be run off throughout the course of the day.
President of the AAG, Claude Blackmore, who had been involved in several meetings with coaches and their athletes last week, said that it is of paramount importance that the association stages this meet.
Blackmore noted that the association had not had the opportunity so see its athletes perform on the track for the year because all of the scheduled events had been washed out.
“Carifta Games have been scheduled early this year and although we are way behind in our competition preparation due to the rain we still have to put our best foot forward and hope that we are able to run off the trials as planned,” he said.
Blackmore added that the association would utilise the inner circuit of the National Park to asses most of the distance and middle-distance athletes as a last resort if today’s trials are rained out.
The events listed for today’s trials are 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m along with the long jump, shot putt, discus and javelin for girls’ and boys’ under-17.
The under-20 category will feature all of the above events, but the girls will contest the 3000m while the boys will run the 5000m.
Athletes in both categories will not be allowed to participate in more than two events.
The entry fee per athlete is $200 and only athletes registered with the AAG for the 2008 calendar year will be allowed to participate.
The 2008 Carifta Games are scheduled to take place from March 22-24 in St Kitts/Nevis.
