US-based Bowen seeks glory for Ja

BY PAUL A REID Observer Writer

Sunday, April 24, 2011

MONTEGO BAY, St James — When he lines up in the final of the Under-20 boys 5,000 metres final tomorrow afternoon at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, New Jersey-based Khari Bowen will be the first overseas-based athlete to represent Jamaica at the CARIFTA Games in decades.

Bowen, who attends Monroe High School in New Jersey, won the event at the CARIFTA Trials in 15 minutes 46.93 seconds to book his ticket to the Games which began yesterday morning.

While the other Caribbean territories often call on their US-based athletes for the CARIFTA Games, the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) depend on local-based athletes to make up the team that compete at the three-day meet.

Most of the overseas-based Jamaicans who are eligible for the national teams are colleges students who are busy representing their schools at the time of the Trials, but are often included in global championships such as the Junior Pan-American, IAAF World Youth or World Junior events.

Competing in Montego Bay will represent a full circle for young Bowen, whose father, Clement, hails from Salt Spring, a community just outside of Montego Bay, and represented Cornwall College in the middle- and long-distance events.

Khari comes from good stocks as his father, who was nicknamed 'Tino", also represented the University of the West Indies, Mona, at the Inter-campus Games under Constantine Haughton, and was one of the founders of the development meet, which eventually became the Milo Western Relays.

The younger Bowen, who will turn 18 later this month, also runs for Juventus Track Club in Philadelphia, where he is trained by former Vere Technical and Santos football player Derick (Jughead) Thompson.

Khari is a nationally-ranked high school athlete and is at number eight indoors in the two-mile event in the USA and ran a personal best 9 minutes 18.80 seconds at the New Balance National Indoors and 8:36.00 in the 3,000m. He has also run 1 minute 58 seconds over 800m.

This weekend, Coach Thompson is expecting Khari to go under 15 minutes in the 5,000 — a time that should see him atop the podium at most CARIFTA meets.