Three separate groups of Bermudian athletes left the island on Thursday to compete in overseas track and field meets.

A national relay team is competing in the 4x100 metres at the inaugural Barbados Grand Prix, which takes place at Usain Bolt Sports Complex in Bridgetown on Saturday. DeVon Bean, the national athletics coach, travelled with Denver Tucker, Norre Robinson, Miles Outerbridge and Suresh Black to the Caribbean.

Eight young athletes will be competing at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Under-13 and U-15 Age Group Championships, which take place in Managua, Nicaragua, on Saturday and Sunday.

Jordyn Lewis, Gebre Evans, Zaylee Lawrence, Zaria Codrington, Ryan Madeiros, Chanz Martin, Chez Edmond and Kierra Broadley-Samuels have been chosen to represent the island.

Also flying the island’s flag is a group of 41 athletes from Bermuda Pacers Track Club. They are participating in 107 individual and ten relay events at the Flying Angels International Track and Field Championships, on Saturday and Sunday, in Toronto, Ontario.

Bean spent the past few weeks working with the relay team, with much of the work on the Flora Duffy Stadium track focused on the baton exchange.

“These guys have never passed to each other so this is totally foreign,” Bean told The Royal Gazette.

“It’s not like we've run a relay before, we haven’t run a men’s 4x100 relay at this level in years. It’s quite exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.

“I think we’re in a unique situation with these four athletes and it’s only going to get better the more they get familiar with each other.

While this is viewed as one of the best-assembled relay teams for the island in years, Bean is not putting the four under pressure, as the Bermudians will face stiff competition from Jamaica and Barbados, who are chasing qualification for the World Athletics Championships, which will be held in Tokyo in September.

“We have a really good team but all our athletes are still young. Our fastest guy right now is Miles Outerbridge at 10.44sec.

“If you look at the Jamaican team, they’ve all gone sub-10, so that puts things into perspective. So the reality is that we’re not at that level yet, but obviously, Jamaica, Barbados, the bigger islands who haven’t qualified for the World Championships, this is an opportunity to get that qualification.”

Bean has backed the relay team to surpass the national record, set by Mike Sharpe, Dennis Trott, Cal Dill and Gregory Simons, who clocked 39.75 at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada.

“Our main goal eventually is to break the national record,” he said.

“But right now we’re trying to get used to passing the baton around the track, and getting more familiar with each other.

“Later on in the summer, if everybody is still healthy, we’ll go to the NACAC Championships in Bahamas.

“Hopefully, early next year, we can go to the Penn Relays. I know it’s going to be hard because most of those guys, their schools go to the same event.

“We’ll keep on plugging away and see where the cards fall. We have the Commonwealth Games, CAC Games and World Relays, so we’re looking to qualify for all that, with LA28 being the ultimate goal.”

Meanwhile, sixteen athletes in the Pacers squad will be getting their first taste of overseas competition.

Aaron Lugo, the senior male athlete on the team, will compete in the under-18 boys 100, 200 and long jump. Other senior team members are Surii Russell and Tobiah Goodchild.

Arima Turner, a student at Montverde Academy, is the leading figure in the girls team, together with Azari Jones. Kelise Wade, Riana Robinson, Zyari Lawrence and Sarai Minors.