The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE top juniors in athletics will take centre stage on the IAAF circuit this week in what is expected to be the biggest international athletics event to be held in South America.

The 2015 IAAF World Youth Championships is scheduled to get underway July 15 and run through July 19 in Cali, Colombia, featuring over 1,200 athletes from 154 countries.

The Bahamas’ 12 member team will see action nearly immediately as competition commences on a busy opening day.

Up first will be Javan Martin and Perez Knowles competing in the heats of the boys 100m at 10:55am local time.

Charisma Taylor and Sasha Wells will then run in the heats of the 100m hurdles at 12:15pm.

The lone field athlete of team Bahamas, Serena Brown will throw in the qualification of the girls discus on day one.

The morning session for Team Bahamas will conclude with the 400m heats in both divisions.

Donovan Storr will take part in the boys heats at 12:50pm while D’Nia Freeman and Dreshanae Rolle will contest the girls heats at 1:40pm.

In the afternoon session, Branson Rolle is set to compete in the boys 400m hurdles heats at 6:10pm.

Semi-finals and finals of the boys 100m will conclude day one.

On Thursday (July 16), Brianne Bethel and Blayre Catalyn will take to the track first for team Bahamas with heats in the girls 100m at 11:30am.

Bethel is ranked at number 17 on the IAAF top list with a time of 11.63sec, turned in at the CARIFTA championships in St Kitts.

Tavonte Mott will also compete in the boys 110m hurdles at 1:50pm.

Semi-finals and finals in the afternoon session will include the girls 100m hurdles, 100m, 400m and boys 400m hurdles.

Friday (July 17) will see the final group of team members take part in the heats of the 200m.

The girls 200m heats will again feature Bethel and Catalyn.

Bethel comes in ranked at number eight on the IAAF top list.

She ran her season’s best time at CARIFTA with a 23.47s run in a silver medal performance.

The 12-member team is coached by Stephen Murray while Roosevelt Thompson serves as manager and Margo Major as assistant manager.

Previously, the largest IAAF track and field championships to be held in South America was the 2000 IAAF World Junior Championships, where 1,122 athletes from 151 countries competed.

The IAAF World Youth Championships is one of the leading events in the IAAF’s global competition programme, providing a platform for the world’s leading athletes under the age of 18 to excel.

“The IAAF World Youth Championships give Cali, the sports capital of Colombia, its first opportunity to impress on the international athletics stage since it hosted the 1971 edition of the Pan-American Games,” said IAAF President Lamine Diack in a press release.

“If athletics is to remain the No.1 individual sport in a changing world, then we must encourage and attract the youth of every generation. The IAAF World Youth Championships, which began in Bydgoszcz in 1999, are a central part of our strategy to inspire kids around the world.

“The IAAF World Youth Championships are not just another competition but an opportunity for youngsters to gain valuable experience, improve personal bests, and to build friendships with their rivals from every corner of the world.”

There were no medal-winning events for Team Bahamas at the 8th IAAF World Youth Athletics Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine, in 2013.

However, a number of athletes recorded personal bests in a series of spirited performances against the top junior athletes in the world.

The Bahamas’ largest ever team for the bi-annual meet (18 members) produced three finalists and seven semi-finalists, while several athletes also set new personal bests.

The top individual performance for the Bahamas came on day four from high jumper Laquan Nairn who just missed a spot on the medal podium due to a higher number of knockdowns.

Nairn jumped a then personal best of 2.16m, which he cleared on his second attempt to enter a three-way tie with Christoff Bryan of Jamaica and Oleksandr Barannikov of the Ukraine.

The Bahamas has continued to see an improvement in its performances since the inception of the biannual championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in 1999.

Nivea Smith broke the ice in 2007 when she won a bronze medal in the women’s 200 in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

In 2011 in Lille, France, the Bahamas got its best showing with Shaunae Miller and Stephen Newbold capturing the gold in the 400m and 200m respectively, and Latario Collie-Minns winning the gold in the triple jump, while his twin brother Lathone Collie-Minns picked up the bronze.