PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

National Olympic associations in the region are getting together to stage a Caribbean Olympic-styled Games in July 2009.

The seven-day event is proposed to have six sporting disciplines - boxing, aquatics (swimming and water polo), track and field, netball, volleyball and beach volleyball at venues in Trinidad and Tobago from July 13-19.

Elton Prescott, the secretary of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC), declared at the launch on Tuesday that the event is a long overdue project and set to showcase to Caribbean audiences "the best of the Caribbean athletes."

"We thought that it was time to bring home within this region, those elite athletes," Prescott said.

"The Caribbean Games will provide a platform to showcase elite Caribbean athletes as a means of motivating young sportsmen and sportswomen to aspire to international standards and achievements," added Prescott.

The Caribbean Games have been sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and are open to all members of CANOC.

Good timing of event

The CANOC members are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Prescott believes the timing of the event in 2009 increases the chance of the region's top performers being available since there are not many major international events to compete with the new regional games.

"There is no better time than (the year) immediately after the Olympic Summer Games which (2009) coincidentally happens to be a free year, relatively free on the athletics calendar," Prescott said.