Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter
Veracruz, Mexico:

Shot putter Genneva Greaves has backed the nation to close the gap between themselves and the region's elite throwers; remaining encouraged despite a less than ideal showing in the event's final at the Central American and Caribbean Games yesterday.

Competing inside the Heriberto Jara Athletic Stadium, Greaves' best mark of 14.21m was only good enough for sixth place, well behind Trinidadian Cleopatra Borel, who won the event with a distance a little shy of the 19-metre mark, at 18.99m.

Second place in the event went to Yanuivis Lopez of Cuba (17.88m), while Sandra Lemos finished in third place with a distance of 17.50m.

The Jamaican, while admitting that her execution could have been better on the day, was well aware of the quality of the field that she faced and even her personal best mark of 15.13m would not have been good enough to get among the medals.

There was certainly little encouragement when the defending champion, launched 17.84m on her first throw, a mark which would have been good enough to win the event at Jamaica's National Trials earlier this year.

While Jamaica is a world renowned power in sprinting, there remains little doubt that the gulf in quality between themselves and its neighbours in the field events is a vast one.

With more athletes now turning their attention to these events, however, there is great optimism that the country will soon be mentioned among the world's best, in the stadium's greener areas, often used as just another front row seat to impressive on track exploits. In her mind Greaves has no doubt.

"Of course, we can. Most definitely that remains our aim. It is what all of this hard training is about and I know we will get there," Greaves said.

"The good thing about meets like this is that it exposes us to what is out there what the competition is like. We will go back and keep training and return looking forward to doing our best," Greaves added.