<
McCarthy - File

Chrisdale McCarthy of St Jago High has undoubtedly been one of the country's best female junior hurdlers for the past two seasons, and is determined to continue her impressive form this Saturday at the Supreme Ventures Limited JAAA National Junior Championships.

McCarthy will be competing in the girls' Under-20 100 metres hurdles as she seeks to be one of two representatives for Jamaica, at the World Junior Championships in Spain next month.

After enduring a lean spell after winning Class IV at the ISSA Boys and Girls' Championships several years ago, McCarthy bounced back last year, dominating and scoring a big victory over her main rival Megan Simmonds of St Andrew High in Class II. Both athletes have had some close finishes and represented the country at the World Youth Championships in France last year, where McCarthy was fifth in the final, just ahead of Simmonds who was sixth.

McCarthy has, however, been unbeaten all season on local soil with her only defeat coming overseas at the Carifta Games, where she lost by one hundredth of a second to Barbados' Sade Mariel Greenidge.

McCarthy and Simmonds are set to renew their rivalry once again this weekend, and although being upstaged by McCarthy all season, the fast starting pint-sized Simmonds, who was plagued with injury early in the season, has recovered well, and will be very competitive this time around.

McCarthy could, however, have the measure of Simmonds once again, but the event will not be only about the two as two other athletes in the field could spring a surprise. Edwin Allen's Keenan Davis and former St Jago High hurdler Samantha Scarlett, who is a freshman at Auburn University in the United States, could steal the show. Davis, who represented the country at the World Youth Championships in 2009, is back to form and only lost narrowly at Champs to McCarthy.

Scarlett, who was a dominant hurdler for two years at Bethel High School, in the US and has done quite well in her first season at Auburn University, will want to make up for her disappointment at the World Youth Trials in 2009. She had a commanding lead over a quality field that included the likes of Elliot, McCarthy and Davis before hitting the penultimate barrier hurdler, which cost her the event.