Six international athletes as well as top overseas-based Bermuda competitors will help raise the excitement level at the XL Catlin Bermuda National Athletics Championships at the National Stadium tomorrow and Saturday.

The men’s elite 800 metres race promises to be a highlight with Bermuda’s top middle distance runners Aaron Evans, Shaquille Dill, Dage Minors, Lamont Marshall and Michaiah Robinson going up against some quality competition in Jamall James of Trinidad, Sean Obinwa of Nigeria and Haiti’s Moise Joseph.

Evans, who has been training with the Nike Oregon Track Club, has a personal best time of 1.46.23, while Dill has run a 1.47.76 and Minors a 1.50.14 after a successful season at Franklin Pierce University.

“We are going to be having an elite international field in the 800 race which is shaping up to be very exciting,” Donna Watson, the BNAA president, said.

“We have Jamall James with a PB of 1.46.57, Sean Obinwa with a PB of 1.46.68 and Moise Joseph with a PB of 1.45.74, so you can see that this elite 800 race is going to be great with all of the athletes preparing for either the Pan Am Games or attempting to qualify for the World Championships.

“Not to be outdone we have also brought in a female 800 runner [Anna Murdock] to compete against our own Kyrah Scraders. We would like to thank our sponsor XL Catlin for supporting this event and allowing us to take our National Championships to another level.”

Also competing will be top Bermuda sprinter Tre Houston, who ran 20.42 in the 200 last weekend as he prepares for the Pan Am Games in Toronto. Houston will compete in the 100 and 200 against Kyle Webb.

Also competing in the 100 is Charles Greaves of Barbados, a team-mate of Webb and Bruce DeGrilla at Centra Arizona College.

Greaves will also compete in the long jump and triple jump against DeGrilla and Ethan Philip.

High jumper Sakari Famous will face some stiff competition when she competes against Emma Kimoto from Canada. Famous, a bronze medallist at the Carifta Games in St Kitts in April, is the recipient of a Government sports scholarship.

The money was used to bring in Henk Kraaijenhof, the Dutch Sports Performance Consultant, to work with Famous and Rohaan Simons, Bermuda’s high jump coach, last week.

“I’m not going to put pressure on her by saying, ‘you’re going to see great things come Friday’, that is left for later development,” Simons said of 15-year-old Famous.

“She was extremely receptive and is a very smart girl and will find you out if you are telling her something she doesn’t feel is right.

“She was asking questions and he asked her a lot of questions. She retained the information, which a smart jumper has to do. Sakari is a competitor and will learn a lot either way.”

The event starts at 6pm tomorrow and 3pm on Saturday.

Tomorrow’s competition features the Corporate and Services 4x100 relay at 7.20pm.