The Dutch speaking Caribbean island Curaçao will host the 46th edition of the CARIFTA Games, scheduled for April 15, 16 and 17, 2017.
The island was chosen ahead of the Cayman Islands, who had expressed an interest but failed to submit a letter of support from its government.
The games have never been held before in Curaçao or any of the other Dutch Caribbean territories, a series of islands administered by The Netherlands.
During the fixture which traditionally has two age categories: under-18 and under-20 for both boys and girls, there will be as many as 150 different individual events. Guyana is expected to field a formidable team after identifying 37 athletes for a National Elite Camp. Sir Austin Sealy, then President of the Amateur Athletic Association of Barbados, inaugurated the Games for junior athletes in 1972 to mark the transition from the Caribbean Free Trade Association to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
CARIFTA was meant to enhance relations between the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean after the dissolution of the West Indies Federation, but the CARIFTA Games took that idea a step further, including the French and Dutch Antilles.
The games have produced world record holders, Usain Bolt, Darrel Brown, world and Olympic champions such as Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica, Kim Collins of St Kitts-Nevis and Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas, Alleyne Francique of Grenada and Obadele Thompson of Barbados.
