World Ju­nior cham­pi­on Machel Ce­de­nio end­ed his ju­nior (un­der 20) cam­paign as the world's top 400m ju­nior sprint­er for 2014.

De­spite rac­ing spar­ing­ly due to in­jury, the lanky Point Fortin res­i­dent set world lead­ing times al­most every time he stepped on the track. He start­ed his year by rac­ing the first of his world lead­ing times when he clocked 45.95 to re­tain his Carif­ta boys Un­der-20 400m ti­tle in Mar­tinique in April.

Ce­de­nio's next run was even bet­ter when he won the Cay­man Is­lands In­vi­ta­tion­al men's one lap event on May 7 against his se­niors, low­er­ing his world lead­ing time to 45.23 and al­so break­ing the na­tion­al ju­nior mark of 45.74 set by Ren­ny Quow in 2006.

The six-time Carif­ta cham­pi­on came close to a new na­tion­al mark when he took the CAC Ju­nior crown in 45.28. He went to the 2014 World Ju­niors Champs in Eu­gene, Or­geon, USA in Ju­ly as the over­whelm­ing favourite and du­ly de­liv­ered with a dom­i­nant run to cap­ture the gold medal in yet an­oth­er world-lead­ing and na­tion­al ju­nior clock­ing of 45.13. Ce­de­nio's win­ning time pushed the Flori­da-based sprint­er up to joint 21st on the all-time ju­nior lists along with triple Olympic gold medal­ist and five-time World cham­pi­on Je­re­my Wariner of the USA.

His 45.13 clock­ing is al­so the 33rd best for the year in the se­nior rank­ings. In ad­di­tion to hold­ing the fastest time on the plan­et, the Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do grad­u­ate has four of the six quick­est clock­ings for the year and has dipped un­der the 46 sec­ond bar­ri­er on sev­en oc­ca­sions over the last twelve months.

Ce­de­nio showed his world-class po­ten­tial two years ear­li­er when he was fifth at the 2012 World Ju­niors fi­nals as a 16 year old. That year, he al­so qual­i­fied for this coun­try's Olympic team as a re­serve on the men's 4x400m team and end­ed the sea­son as the top Youth quar­ter-mil­er for 2012 again dom­i­nat­ing the rank­ings with eight of the top ten times.

Ce­de­nio is the lone T&T ath­lete ranked in the top ten on the lat­est IAAF World Ju­nior rank­ings. How­ev­er, he an­chored the Carif­ta's boys Un­der-20 4x400m team, which in­clud­ed Asa Gue­vara, Bre­on Mullings and Nathan Far­in­ha to vic­to­ry to the fourth best time in the world (3:06.02).

Triple World Ju­nior fi­nal­ist Jonathan Far­in­ha is the next best placed lo­cal at 11th in the men's 100m stand­ings. Fel­low World Ju­nior fi­nal­ists Reubin Wal­ters (men's 110m hur­dles-99cm) and Shakeil Wait­he (men's javelin) are at 13th in their events.

Far­in­ha sits out­side the top ten in the men's sprint with his per­son­al best (pb) run of 10.25 which he set in win­ning the na­tion­al ju­nior ti­tle at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Port-of-Spain, on May 31.

John-Mark Con­stan­tine is at 25th with a pb of 10.35 which he es­tab­lished in fin­ish­ing run­ner-up to Far­in­ha at the Na­tion­al Ju­nior Champs. Far­in­ha is at 16th in the men's 200m fol­low­ing an­oth­er per­son­al run of 20.68 set in tak­ing the Na­tion­al Ju­nior half lap crown. At the World Ju­niors the QRC stu­dent was eighth in the 100m and 200m fi­nals and led the men's 4x100m team of Con­stan­tine, Hol­land Cabara, Mic­ah Bal­lan­tyne and Akan­ni His­lop to sixth place in the fi­nals.

Wal­ters was 13th in the men's sprints hur­dles fi­nals in a pb of 13.52. The fi­nal was a his­toric one as the win­ner, Wil­hem Be­locian of France, took the gold in a new world ju­nior record of 12.99 with Ja­maican Tyler Ma­son in sec­ond in 13.06 (al­so un­der the pre­vi­ous world ju­nior mark).

Wal­ters is al­so at 29th in the men's 400m hur­dles with a pb run of 51.46 at the Twight­light Games at the Hase­ly Craw­ford on May 02. Wait­he, the Carif­ta and CAC Ju­nior Cham­pi­on, sits at num­ber 13 on the men's javelin list­ing with his pb throw of 72.75 in tak­ing the na­tion­al open ti­tle on June 22.

Among the women, Za­kiya De­noon is the best ranked at 15th in the women's 100m with her 11.41 pb clock­ing in cap­tur­ing the na­tion­al ju­nior ti­tle on May 31. Aaliyah Teles­ford is at 23rd with 11.47 while Carif­ta girls un­der 20 cham­pi­on Kayelle Clarke is 25th in the women's half lap event with 23.44. De­noon, Teles­ford, Clarke com­bined with Mau­ri­ca Pre­ito to clocked the third fastest time in the world in the women's 4x100m run­ning 44.23 to take the CAC Ju­nior gold. The quar­tet missed out on a medal at the World Ju­niors fin­ished fourth.

Ce­de­nio, De­noon and Wait­he are the top ju­nior per­form­ers in their events in the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) re­gion. Wal­ters and Nicholas Lan­deau (1:49.51) are at two in the sprint hur­dles and the men's 800m re­spec­tive­ly. Kayelle Clarke is third in the women's 200m. Jonathan Far­in­ha is at num­ber three in the 100m and five in the 200. Ak­i­la Mc­Shine (13.80-pb) is fifth in the women's 100m hur­dles.

Aaron Lewis (13.85 sec-pb) and Por­tious War­ren (14.47m-pb) sit at sixth in the men's sprints hur­dles and the women's shot put re­spec­tive­ly. In the men's shot put Sher­vorne Wor­rell (16.22m) and Kene­jah Williams (16.06m) are eighth and ninth re­spec­tive­ly. While in the dis­cus Williams is at 12th (47.17m) and Wor­rell 20th (45.81).

In the World Youth (Un­der 18) rank­ings, two time Carif­ta and CAC Ju­nior long jump cham­pi­on And­wuelle Wright is the top rat­ed T&T com­peti­tor at 17th in the boys long jump with a pb of 7.42m set in tak­ing third at the Hamp­ton Games at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um on May 17.

Youth Olympic fi­nal­ist Jem­i­nise Par­ris is at 18th on the girls 100m hur­dles (76.2cm) per­for­mance list. Par­ris clocked 13.62 sec (pb) in the heats of the Youth Olympics in Nan­jing Chi­na on Aug 20 be­fore fin­ished fifth in the fi­nals three days lat­er in 13.76. Youth Olympic Games boys 200m fourth place fin­ish­er Akan­ni His­lop missed on a place on the rank­ings. The 16 year old clocked 21.28 sec in the heats of the men's 200m at this year's Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships and when on to cap­ture the B fi­nals beat­ing the field de­spite be­ing the youngest.