Three local athletes will leave the island next month on track and field scholarships to the United States.

Alpha Academy's Claudia Calder and GC Foster College's duo Petrice Richards and Jerine Bolt will head off to Hampton University in Virginia.

Calder, the holder of eight CSEC and three Cape subjects, was the 2007 Class One high jump champion. At this year's championships, she was a runner-up in the high jump and was a finalist in the 400-metre hurdles event. She was also the Under-20 high jump champion at the National Championships in June. She will be majoring in chemical engineering.

Bolt, a second-year student at GC Foster College was a member of Holmwood Tech-nical's successful 4x400 and 4x800 metres teams at the 2006 Championships.

Richards, who was a member of the GC Foster College medley relay team at this year's Inter-collegiate Championships, spe-cialises in the 100 and 200 metres. Bolt and Richards will major in health and physical education.

"All three athletes are expected to bolster Hampton University's track programme as the team has dominated the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference, where they have won six conse-cutive outdoor titles and five overall indoor championships," Ham-pton's coach, Raymond Graham, told The Gleaner.