 Hi, just so it's time to switch now to track and field on the Sportsmax zone. We're four days away from the start of the Carrefter Games and we continue to zone in on the teams and athletes to look out for during the Easter weekend event. On Monday show, we learned a bit about the Sinkitsa Nevis outfit and today we focus on the host Grenada and discuss their chances of improving on the 10 medals they captured in the Bahamas last year. Immacive 62 member team has been named for the games and the athletes will be expecting to impress the local crowd. For joining us via Zoom to go in depth on the team is head coach Wayne McSween. Good afternoon Wayne, how are you? Carrefter ready? Yes, good afternoon. We are ready. Yes, we are. Alright, what's the atmosphere like you know in the country because I know like back in Trinidad and Tobago where I'm from and now well I could speak for Jamaica too when there's a big event and a lot of our different countries are coming in you could sense there's a change a bit of excitement in the atmosphere. What's it like back in Grenada? Yes, the excitement is on a high particularly because we have just celebrated our 58th year of independence and so Carrefter 51 is like a connection between the two. So the hype is in the air for the Grenadian people and all the Grenadan athletes and spectators are quite hoisted and ready for an exciting 3-day event. And coach I just spoke about the 10 medals from last year you're the man at the helm you should know what we are going to be expecting how are the medals looking this year? Hopefully we're hoping to double the medal count. We have our strength like mostly in the male division but we're expecting the girls to come quite strong and we're looking to impress our neighbours and ourselves with like doubling the amount of medal held I received last year. Yeah, has the preparation finished or you have a bit more work to get done in time? What we're doing actually now is just finishing everything the relays in particular we wish to get medals in every relay race we take part in but yes more or less we're quite ready and we just have to execute now that's all we do. Yeah I want to talk to you about the size of your team though because a 62 member team is a bigger number than you would have normally had on average if you were a travelling team to somewhere else staging the the curve to games wouldn't it be? Yes well we since we do not have to travel or to charter a flight out we try to have yes a quite larger team not just for style to see we are representing in every event but we have looked at the average performance and we try to get satisfactory performance that will match our Caribbean patriots and try as much as possible to medal in these fields so we are really we have a large team but we're hoping to medal as much as possible. Yeah a couple of weeks ago when we had Conrad Francis in who is your athletics boss there in in Grenada and he was suggesting that while there are no like Kirani James's or Anderson Peters or Hazel and Regis in this current roster based on how known the athletes are he still feels that there's some talent in this this squad that could be eye catching at this meet I suspect this is an accurate representation coming from Mr. Francis. It is it actually is yes we do have some prospective medalists who we're thinking will really give us a good show not just the Grenadian public but everyone viewing our on the meet we have the lights of some names Green and Bishop and Sam we have the Sylvester we have the Serena we have quite a number of them and based on the performances at the national championships and that intercall we feel confident that if they really are reproduced the performances they have done we will and we should be really getting some medals in the categories. Yeah when the Grenadians have been traditionally strong in the Javelin event I don't think there is another country with more Javelin medals in the history of the Curveder game since it started back in 1972 I know that like Paul Philip your coach there who coached Anderson Peters and so on would have done a lot of work there can the track and field public in the Caribbean look again to Grenada to be powerful in the Javelin. Well we hopefully yes we're trying to come as strong as we usually do we have in both male and female under 20 as well as under 17 and we think we can really really do some upset because if we recall last year you're on a 20 we only got bronze this year we're hoping to to medal double both athletes so we hoping based on the performances that they can reproduce it or even surpass the performances and to be medaled. Yeah when in the previous segment we spoke with Rafael Gavaia who is the head coach of the Trinidad indoor hockey team and he mentioned the consistent support that successive governments have given to Trinidad and Tobago's hockey fraternity. I know that successive prime ministers in Grenada have had a lot of love for sport. Your current prime minister Dickon Mitchell is only 45 years old which makes him one of the youngest prime ministers that that we know in in Carracom. Can you talk to us about the the government input in your track and field program and how might this benefit the growth of the sport there. Okay well what I will talk about is the plan going forward. We have a yes of new prime minister he has in his manifesto made some strong suggestion of to support our athletes a little more than it has been in the past and now we're looking forward to revamping our grassroots particularly with CUT and age group championships so we're trying to build we are approaching a new stratus where we want to build back so we have lost the Kirani and the Anderson they're all grown now but we want to start building back and maintain this. The government input is where it comes from the Ministry of Sport where we have the prominent secretaries and the ministers really showing interest and effort so we're hoping that that will continue. Yeah as we have said as we build up to the Carrifta Games it is clear that the Jamaicans have been dominant and are perennial champions and for the most part the Bahamas have been the biggest challengers from time to time Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados would be among the teams challenging more. Do you fancy Grenada being at home and having the numbers in the team as in you know 62 members in the team giving you an opportunity here to be in the top flight maybe top four top five medals. Hopefully if you recall 2016 was it we were second right behind Jamaica and we're hoping now again as we're back home that we will remain if not first but second or within the first three we're hoping that the efforts that we have identified and selected is good enough. I feel quite confident with the performances of a number of athletes they would have shown that consistency and growth from last year to this year so the confidence is there that they could actually match and surpass that of our what we refer to as our power hosts are the stronger members there. Only time will tell and God knows best. Yeah two gold medals among 10 overall in your hall last year in the Bahamas but I see that based on what you're saying and what Athletics Chief Conrad Francis told us a couple of weeks ago that you're building you're trying to cement you know some of the talent to you know get back or to get back into the level that as you just mentioned two years ago finishing second in the middle table to the Jamaicans are there any athletes that viewers of Sportsmax who will be watching the Currifta Games Saturday Sunday and Monday that you can point them to to say well look out for these athletes. Yes definitely even it comes to the 100 meters under 20 boys look out for the likes of Emilio Bishop Samuel Green and the 200 meter Ethan Sam in the 400 meter Josh M. Sylvester in the 800 meter Antoine Blackpeter and T. John Peter King and so on in the jumps under 17 look out for the likes of Christoph Kalista and so on both long and triple jump you know in the Javelin Serena in the shot and in the discourse look for the life of Brown and so on who actually are in Jamaica right now studying and training the Angelo Brown and the other guy we're hoping that these names would be really really outstanding the Kyle Nadine the Huddles a newcomer on the scene hopefully you can point Rave on telescope and so in the Javelin we're hoping that these athletes would actually do what's need to be done they would have been working very hard and those names are some of the names uh Green Indian and Caribbean spectators can fix it on and and at least a brown etc and we will have a showdown yeah I gather from what you have just stated that you will win more than the 10 medals that you won last year in the Bahamas hopefully I think I would I think I would wager a bet on that to say that you will okay I'll put what I have to wage years Owen thanks for talking to us here and all the best to the Spice Owl not only as hosts to be successful but also to see a lot of medals coming from the home team because it's always good when the the home team can give the local fans a lot to cheer about I know that it may be difficult for you to compete with the Bahamians cheering group in in the stands because we know how the Bahamians are uh but but but all the best and we we wish you from the sports match zone a good Carrifta games thank you so much we do appreciate that and we'll try to do our best to impress everyone yeah take your coach thanks thank you so much all right and it will be live on sports match starting Saturday live for all three days of competition at the Carrifta games a wonderful meet and I can guarantee that you're going to see some stars and stars of the future being unfurled over the three days we'll be back with more on the sports match zone after this