Luguelin Santos - file

World Championships 400m bronze medallist, Luguelin Santos, had to turn on the after-burners to get the better of American Tony McQuay at last year's Jamaica International Invitational inside the National Stadium and the little Dominican Republic star can hardly wait to touch down on Jamaican shores for Saturday's meet.

Santos, the 2012 Olympic silver medallist and World junior champion, will be arriving in fine form, after posting a strong 44.72 to finish behind World champion LaShawn Merritt (44.44) and Olympic champion Kirani James (44.60) at the Drake Relays on Friday.

The 20-year-old will again face Merritt when the two line up inside the National Stadium, and with Jamaicans Edino Steele and Javere Bell among the competitors, track fans are sure to be in for a quarter-mile treat.

With the main target of taking his personal best below its current 44.45 standing and into the 43 seconds realm, Santos is hoping to use this weekend's IAAF World Challenge-certified meet as an important step towards this goal and is hoping the energetic Jamaican crowd will drive him towards his goal.

"I can't wait to come to Jamaica," Santos told STAR Sports in a recent sit down interview. "I felt a lot of energy from the crowd last year, and I'm pretty much looking forward to coming again."

Santos, who said that his only regret was not getting the chance to sample some of the island's world-famous jerk chicken, also admitted to being somewhat surprised by his rapid improvement.

"I believe I have a drive to achieve great things. I have a lot of confidence in myself, but I am surprised with my rapid improvement," Santos said. "When I ran 44.71 at the Pan-Am Games in Mexico (2011), I said it was a dream to run that fast in such a short period of training."

Santos' PB prior to that 44.71 was 46.19, done less than a year earlier.

The men's 400m is set to get under way at 9:10 p.m.