UPPER Demerara Club Coach, Johnny Gravesande, is pleased with his athletes’ preparation ahead of today’s first of two Carifta Games trials which will be staged at the National Track and Field Centre at Leonora.

Coach Gravesande said his athletes had done a lot of conditioning and strengthening work and training concluded at the Linden Synthetic Track on Thursday. He added that “we are looking at a twelve-member squad to contest in every event as the athletes were prepared for the sprints and the field events of javelin, discuss, long jump, high jump and triple jump”.

According to him, “[this year] we are going to be bigger than previous years with twelve athletes, where over the years we would have taken about seven and we did not take time off.”

After being part of District 10’s winning team at the National Track and Field championships, the team kept training towards the trials and there is obvious balance in the team.

In previous years the Mackenzie Sports Club was the place for their preparation but with that venue unavailable, Gravesande said it was a challenge for the athletes training on the road and in the sand.

On the road, the problem had to do with vehicular traffic interruption for the athletes while, previously, at the enclosed Mackenzie Sports Club there was no such interruption.

Gravesande said it was tough for the athletes as they were accustomed to being at the MSC where every aspect for their training was allowed.

He pointed out that the athletes who were able to use the MSC facilities and do Guyana proud included Marian Burnett, Daniel Williams and Chantobra Bright to name a few. They all excelled on the world scene after training at the MSC.

The Carifta Games are set for the Easter weekend annually.