Donna Watson, the Bermuda National Athletics Association president, has been named as the organisational delegate for the North American, Central American and Caribbean Under-23 Track and Field Championships in Kamloops, British Columbia, in August.

Watson travelled to Kamloops last week and along with Victor Lopez, the president of Nacac, and Cesar Moreno Bravo, the technical delegate, made a visit to the venue for the championships, which will be held from August 8 to 10, and assessed the readiness of the city.

“We met with the local organising committee, which was led by Bob Cowden, and we also met with the mayor and the city council, where we were introduced and an update of the status of the games was presented by Bob,” Watson said.

“We toured the track facility, the cafeteria and the accommodations for the athletes and held relevant discussions regarding the hosting of the championships. The city is excited and ready for these championships and we had a very successful visit.

“Bermuda will be sending a team to compete in this event and they will mainly be our athletes who are in university under the age of 23 and over the age of 19.

“As the organisational delegate, I am excited and was very impressed with the readiness and the support that the local organising committee is receiving for this event, especially from their city council. It is expected that around 500 athletes from the Caribbean, North America and Central America will be competing in this event.”

Bermuda’s first three athletes have reached the qualifying standards for the Carifta Games in Martinique from April 18 to 21 after the first track meet of the year at the National Sports Centre on Saturday.

Sakari Famous, a medal-winner in the under-17 high jump last year in the Bahamas, achieved the standard in the under-18 girls high jump.

The older age group is a departure from the under-17 category of previous years, while the under-20 division remains unchanged. “This is keeping in line with the World Junior Championships and World Youth Championship age groups for the under-18s,” Watson said.

Jahnai Perinchief also reached the mark in the under-18 boys high jump, while Tiara DeRosa, who threw the shot at last year’s Carifta Games, qualified in the under-18 girls discus.

“We have changed the standards for this year, with there being only ‘A’ standards and the standards have been changed drastically with them being a bit harder than normal,” Watson said.

“This year our goal for our international track meets is quality performances versus quantity of athletes travelling. With this we feel we are going to get our athletes more committed and dedicated to the sport and have them strive to reach higher heights.

“We are looking forward to more athletes reaching the standard as several of our athletes did not compete in the first track meet and we look forward to seeing them in the upcoming meets.”

n The BNAA has confirmed that Trey Simons, Lamont Marshall, Juma Mouchette and veteran Jay Donawa will make up the four-man team to represent Bermuda at the Nacac Cross Country Championships in Trinidad and Tobago next month.