The USA men’s team returns to their third NACAC Combined Championships lead by Paul Terek, winner of the inaugural 2007 IAAF Combined Events Challenge event held in Denzano, Italy earlier this month.
USA Track and Field has formally entered its teams for the Third NACAC Combined Events Championships which will be held in the Dominican Republic on Friday and Saturday, May 25th and 26th.
The USA will be represented in the decathlon by Paul Terek who has a personal best of 8,312 points. Terek scored 8,134 in winning the inaugural event of the 2007 IAAF World Combined Events Challenge held in Denzano, Italy earlier this month, a performance that is only topped this year by Leonel Suarez of Cuba’s 8156.
Terek’s team mates are Jon Ryan Harlan with a personal best of 8,171 points and Chris Boyles who has a personal best of 7,855.
Harlan, Terek and Boyles took the top three places in the 2006 edition of the NACAC Combined Events Championships with Harlan just barely missing the 8,000 barrier. Harlan placed second in last year’s USA National Championships while Boyles and Terek were fourth and fifth places in that competition.
The USA entries in the heptathlon are Fiona Asigbee with a personal best of 6,030, Jackie Poulson with a personal best of 5,804 and Lela Nelson 5,903.
Asigbee won the inaugural heptathlon competition in the NACAC championships in 2005 and was third last year. She placed third in the USA nationals last year where she set her personal best performance. Poulson placed third in San Juan in 2005 but did not compete in 2006.
The team will be lead by the chairman of USA Track and Field Committee John Chaplin accompanied by David Cash.
The host contingent from the Dominican Republic will be headed by Juana Castillo who placed fourth last year right behind the three Americans with a score of 5,581. Castillo enters the competition this year with a new personal best of 5,860 which makes her a strong challenger for a top-three finish.
Other entries include Andrés Mantilla of Colombia who returns for the third time as does Mariana Abuela of Mexico. Also listed is Darvin Colón Herrera of Honduras and Octavious Gillespie of Guatemala who competed in the 2005 event.
Brazil has indicated that they will be sending a team to contest this event as have Cuba and Jamaica but had not confirmed their entries as of this date.
Meanwhile, the Executive Committee of the Puerto Rico Athletic Federation decided last night to enter Steven Marrero and Yaritza Rivera in the event being held in the Dominican Republic. Yaritza recently bettered the national record and is on track to meet the qualifying standard for the Pan American Games. Marrero has made tremendous progress in the pole vault and is also within a few hundred points of making the Pan Am standard and along with Gillespie of Guatemala will be seeking this objective.
The championship will be held in the Félix Sánchez Stadium in Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. The stadium was the venue of the 2003 Pan American Games and of the IVth NACAC U-23 Championships held last year.
