[OLYMPIC GAMES]

ATHENS, Greece - August 18 - It’s the final tune-up for swimmer Jonathan Steele and track and field participants Randy Lewis, Alleyne Francique and Hazel-Ann Regis ahead of their competition.

 Steele competes in heat three of the men’s 50m freestyle at the Main Pool. His qualifying round begins at 3:00 a.m. Eastern Caribbean Time, and if successful, the semifinals are scheduled from about 12:30 p.m.

 He shrugged off the anxiety of waiting with a final splash Wednesday morning.

 Meantime, Randy Lewis will have to battle the heat at the Olympic Stadium on Friday morning when he competes in the men’s triple jump qualifying round from 2:55 a.m. Eastern Caribbean Time while Francique goes into action in the men’s 400m Round One at about 2:20 p.m. Eastern Caribbean Time.

 Regis bows into competition on Saturday morning.

 Sometime on Wedesnday the heat flights will be known for the track and field.

 However, it’s widely expected that all three track and field athletes will make it to the next round of competition.

 Meantime, there may be no better backdrop, no better place that exemplifies the Games' homecoming than the ancient stadium on the plains of Olympia, where the Olympic Games sprung to life in 776 BC.

 Trinidadian Cleopatra Borel and Kimberly Barrett of Jamaica are the Caribbean’s representatives in the women’ shot put qualifying round.

  In this magnificent setting, and after nearly 2,500 years of lying quiet - the ancient Games were banned in 393 AD as pagan - crowds and athletes will once again fill the stadium as competition resumes on Wednesday with the men's and women's Shot Put event.

 It will be the first time in history that women have competed in the ancient stadium, as only men were allowed to participate in the ancient Games, which were dedicated to the Olympian Gods.  

Women were also prohibited from watching the Games, although records indicate high priestesses were allowed into the stadium to tend to religious rites.

 True to ancient form, the winners of tomorrow's Shot Put event will be celebrated in a victory ceremony, and crowned with an olive wreath cut from the sacred Kallisthenos olive tree.

 Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded the winners on Friday August 20 at the Olympic Stadium.