Isle of Man residents will get the chance to see some of the world’s leading athletes and potential stars of the future at this year’s Commonwealth Youth Games. With the London Olympics now less than a year away, a number of nations have confirmed competitors who won medals at the World Junior Championships in Lille in July and who could feature in the 2012 Games. A total of 1000 athletes are expected to participate in the Games from 66 participating nations. They will compete across 7 sports with each sport having a dedicated arena. The NSC Complex will host Swimming and Badminton; Rugby Sevens will be held on the new 3G Astroturf surface at the Bowl and the Athletics at the recently relaid synthetic surface at the NSC Athletics Stadium. The Villa Marina will be transformed into a Boxing area while Men’s and Women’s Gymnastics will take place at the Ellan Vannin Gymnastics Centre and Manx Gymnastics Centre of Excellence respectively. There is also a series of road cycling races which will take place in and around Douglas. Kenya, a country renowned for their distance runners, will be leading the way on the track. Their line up includes Leonard Kirwa Kosencha who ran 1:44.08 for 800 metres in Lille in July at the Junior World Championships, winning the gold medal and breaking the Junior World record in a time that time that would put him top of the Great Britain rankings for Men’s Senior athletes. He is joined in the athletics team by his 800 metre bronze medal winning team-mate Timothy Kitum and William Malel Sitonik and Patrick Mutunga Mwika, who took gold and silver respectively in the 3000 metres in the same championships. The Kenyans have also selected Norah Jeruto Tanui, who won gold in the Steeplechase and her bronze medal winning teammate Lilian Jepkorir Chemweno. A fast race is anticipated in the 400 metres where England’s new sensation Clovis Asong, who won at the European Youth Olympic Festival, will line up against Machel Cadieno of Trinidad & Tobago and another leading Kenyan Alphas leken Kishoyian, who finished runner up in Lille. Clovis was described by the Daily Mail as the UK’s answer to Usain Bolt. Elliot Safo (long jump) and Sophie Papps (100m) were other English winners at this event, and together with World Youths hammer champion Louisa James and Sophie McKinna who ranks 2nd in the World in the Shot, form part of a strong England team while Scotland’s Tom Holligan, the European Youth’s Olympic Champion, also looks a strong contender for a medal in the 200 metres. Among the leading nations, South Africa look a major force. ?Their team includes several medalists from Lille including 110 metre hurdles champion Andries van der Merwe, javelin runner up Morne Moolman and discus bronze medallist Gerhard de Beer. ?? England have chosen a strong Gymnastics team including sixteen year old Dominick Cunningham from Birmingham who took the junior all-around title at the prestigious Gym Sport Tournament in Porto earlier this year and 2010 under 14 British championship Jay Thompson from Devon and bronze medal winner Brinn Bevan, from Essex. The English Girls Gymnastics team is also strong, led by fourteen-year-old Rebecca Tunney from Ashton Under Lyme, the 2011 British Junior all-around, bars and floor Champion. Rebecca is part of the British Senior Squad alongside club teammates Beth Tweddle MBE, a former CYG gold medal winner and Hannah Whelan. She is joined in the team by Abbie Caig, 13, from Liverpool who took an all-around Bronze medal in the 2011 British Junior Championships and fourteen year old Gabby Jupp from Borehamwood, the 2011 British junior beam Champion and Silver medal winner in the all-around category. Gaby also competed for GBR at the 2011 Youth Olympic Festival, winning a Silver medal in the Beam category. Malaysia’s competitors will top the list of favourites in the badminton. Their star name is Zulfadli Zulfiffli who won the prestigious Asian Junior Singles Championship, becoming the first Malaysian to take the title. His teammate Joo Ven Soon is the current Dutch Junior Singles Championship earlier in the season the Ee Yi Teo and Nelson Heg won both the German and Junior Dutch Doubles Championships this year. Competition in the Girls Singles Badminton is also expected to be fierce with a number of high calibre athletes; Pusarla Sindhu from India won the Victor Indonesian International Challenge in 2011, while Tara Pilven from Australia won the Oceania Junior Singles in 2011. England’s Holly Smith is expected to feature in both the ladies and Mixed doubles; she is the current Italian Junior International open champion, which she won with Rhys Walker and, partnering Sophie Brown, won the ladies doubles title in both the Portuguese and Italian Junior Open International tournaments. A number of the World’s leading Rugby nations have confirmed their participation in the Sevens tournament. Heading the list of teams are Australia and South Africa, both of whom have strong heritage in Senior and Junior World Rugby. England and Scotland will be hoping to provide a strong test while the Isle of Man, Canada, Sri Lanka and Trinidad and Tobago will all be hoping to make their mark. Local residents can also get behind the Manx team who will be competing in all seven sports. Local athletes expected to do well include swimmer Grant Halsall in and cycling brothers Joe and Jake Kelly. Tickets for the Opening Ceremony and all of the sporting events can be purchased from the Welcome Centre, the Villa Marina or from the NSC reception. Tickets for the Opening Ceremony are ?15 and for sporting events range from ?6 to ?10 with concessions in certain sports for disabled, pensioners and juniors. ENDS