Bermuda's senior and junior cross-country teams leave the Island this Thursday to compete in Saturday's annual North American, Central American and Caribbean Association Championships (NACAC), which is being staged in Trinidad.

The senior team includes Jay Donawa, who competed in last year's races, and Sean Trott while Trey Simons, Juma Mouchette, Dage Minors, Kameron Creighton and Shawn Herman make up the junior team.

Travelling with the team are coach Cal Simons and manager April Vesey.

The senior men will be competing on a eight kilometre course while the junior men will race over six kilometres.

A team competition will see the top four registering points based on their finish position.

Bermuda Track and Field Association (BTFA) president Donna Watson believes the experience will be valuable in the long run for the younger runners, who will be one of the youngest groups involved in the championships.

"We are looking at this event for experience for our younger team as they will probably be amongst the youngest competitors in the age group which is under-19 and our youngest being Dage at 14 years-old.

"We are looking at building their experience and hopefully sending this team to the next few events and eventually really being competitive.

"You never know, they may surprise us as all of these athletes have been turning in some good performances so far this year and they have all met the Carifta qualifying standards.

"Also they will get a feel for the competition they will face at Carifta."

Eleven countries are taking part – Bermuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Canada, Guyana, US Virgin Islands, Jamaica, St Lucia, USA, St Vincent and Grenadines.

Former May 24 champion Kavin Smith and Donawa found the going tough in difficult terrain at the championships last year, with Donawa finishing the 8K course in 12th and Smith placing 18th in the Senior Men's event that included 18 top runners from several countries.