ATHLETES wanting to represent Bermuda at the Central American and Caribbean Cross Country Championships in Aruba next month will get their chance to qualify during trials on Saturday and also the following week when the National Cross Country Championships are staged.

And Bermuda's National Track and Field coach, Gerry Swan, is hoping that Bermuda will send both a men's and women's team to Aruba for the annual event which will be held at the Tierra del Sol Resort and Country Club.

Last year Bermuda hosted the CAC Cross Country Championships which were staged over the Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton. Bermuda won a bronze medal in the men's team event.

Swan said: "This Saturday we are having a cross country trial like we normally do. The trial will be held at the Arboretum at 9 a.m. Then the following Saturday it will be the BTFA National Cross Country Championships and after that race the athletes for Aruba will be chosen.

"There have been some cross country races already this year at the Arboretum - mainly those races held by Swan's Running Club - but our National Championships will be held at Astwood Park on South Shore where they have been held for the past couple of years."

Swan also said that information has been sent out to some of Bermuda top runners who are based overseas. "But we also want as many runners as possible to come out and try for the team. Among our top male athletes we are probably looking at Jay Donawa, Terrance Armstrong, Tracey Wright and Jamal Hart and we also hope that Ashley Couper will come out for the women."

Couper has been residing in California over the past few years going to college and has smashed a number of national records on the track during her time on the West coast. She has been back in Bermuda since August and is expected to be on the island until January.

Swan said: "She has competed in a couple of cross country races this year and she has responded to the information sent out to athletes and seems to be interested. We are also still waiting to hear from a couple of our athletes who are based overseas."

The CAC championship take place on Sunday, November 17 in Aruba.

Swan said: "We expect it to be quite hot. I expect it to be in the low to mid 80s. All four races (junior men's, junior women's, senior men's and senior women's) will be held in one afternoon unlike when we staged them in Bermuda last year where we raced them over two days. Countries will be expected to arrive on November 15 depending on the flights. We will leave Bermuda either on November 14 or 15 - we might have to overnight going down there."

On the Saturday there is an offical tour of the course. "It is a golf course and it will probably be similiar to what we did last year at Port Royal," said Swan.

Last year for the first time the CAC had junior men and junior women races (under 20 years old and no younger than 14). Prior to last year there had just been men's and women races.

The distances are: junior women will be six kilometre race; junior men will be an eight kilometre race; senior women will also be an eight kilometre race while the senior men will race over a 12 kilometre course.

Swan said: "For cross country races the distances may vary a bit from one host country to another because of the terrain. There is not an exact distance - there is some degree of reasonable allowance."

Bermuda is hoping to be represented in the senior men's and women's races. Swan said: "We are looking to have teams certainly in the men's category and perhaps the women's category. We will have to see what happens in the trials and National Championships over the next two weeks and see what response we get from our athletes we have overseas. The BTFA have communicated with all the ahtletes who are likely to be contenders."

The CAC Cross Country Championships is basically a team event although individual honours are awarded. "For the men you must have a minimum of four and a maximum of six runners. And four runners must complete the course in order to be considered for team honours. If you start with six runners and only three complete the course you are out of the team event but you are still in for the individual honours. In the women's event a team must consist of a minimum of three and a maximum of four runners with three completing the course for the team honours."

Also it will not be just the Bermuda runners trying to qualify for the CAC championships over the next two weekends. Swan said that a Barbadian runner, Sylvester Jean-Pierre, who represented his country last year when Bermuda staged the championships, will be running in the Bermuda trials. "He is now working in the hotel industry in Bermuda and wants to try out for the Barbados team in our trials and he is very welcome to compete. He is hoping that if he does well enough Barbados will look upon his qualifying favourably."