THE local organising committee (LOC) of the 49th staging of the Carifta Games is hoping the legacy from this year’s staging will heighten the profile of the regional championships.

Michael Fennell, chairman of the organising committee, said they will be approaching the three-day event as a “major international track and field event, not just as a junior championships”.

The championships, which was started 50 years ago by Barbadian sports administrator Austin Sealy, has been held in Jamaica on seven previous occasions. Overall, it has been hosted by 13 different territories.

The Bahamas has hosted the championships a record eight times, followed by Jamaica and Barbados (seven times each), Trinidad and Tobago (five), Bermuda and Martinique (four), and Cayman Islands (three). Guadeloupe, Grenada ans St Kitts/Nevis have staged it twice while Turks and Caicos Islands, St Lucia and Curacao have all held the Carifta Games once.

Fennell told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday that they hoped to “set a new mark as far as organisation is concerned, based on a better platform, as a product.”

With Lord Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, expected to be a guest of the organisers, he said: “We want to ensure that these championships will be run as an international championships and not just as a junior meet.”

Jamaica’s track and field administrators have established themselves as world-class organisers, having staged a number of top-tier events dating back to the Commonwealth Games in the 1960s. In 2002 Kingston hosted the World Athletics Under-20 Championships (then the World Juniors) along with a number of one-day meets, including the Jamaica International Invitational which is a part of the World Athletics series, and the Racers Grand Prix.

— Paul A Reid