Bermuda will send their largest ever team to next month's Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Puerto Rico, according to Phillip Guishard, general secretary of the Bermuda Olympic Association (BOA).

The CAC Games will be staged in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico from July 17 to August 1.

Guishard said he doubted that the BOA had ever been involved in sending a team this large to a Games.

"The number we have right now is just under 70 athletes with a total team number of about 100 which would include officials and coaches. It certainly will be a big team – in fact, I think it will be our biggest team we have ever sent. I don't think we have ever sent a team of this size before."

Guishard said that about 11 sports were expected to be involved in the Games.

"We still have to have our final selection meeting," he said, adding, "you have to keep in mind that this is an entry level (Games) for international competition. The CAC Games are the first lead-up to the Olympics, so not only do you have your established athletes but our national sporting bodies also want to test a few others athletes to see where they stand in the international scene.

"The team going to the CAC Games will be a mixture of both (elite athletes and rising, promising athletes). I don't want to go into all the details right now but there will be all of the usual sports – tennis, track, swimming and we also have the women's hockey team."

One of the biggest problems facing the BOA in sending teams to the likes of the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games is the cost.

"It can be tough," admitted Guishard. "And with the CAC Games, the organisers do not give us any financial help. For something like the Olympic Games we do get help (from the IOC) with regards to travel and there is no charge for (staying in) the Athletes Village.

"But for something like the CAC Games we pay through the nose."

In the past at the CAC Games all the different sports have been on their own. "We did supply the Chef de Mission but that was it. This will be the first time the BOA have taken on a considerable number of people. In the past they went as individual entities. But this time we have embraced all the national sporting bodies.

"Some of them are paying for themselves depending on their level. We are interested in elite athletes and those who have the potential to be elite athletes so we will be (financially) helping those that we can. And I can say that we have been very pleased with how some of our athletes have been performing this year."

The CAC Games are staged every four years and are for countries in Central America, the Caribbean, Bermuda, and the South American countries of Surinam, Guyana, Colombia and Venezuela. The last Games in 2006 were staged in Colombia and the 2014 Games will be held in Mexico.

Bermuda have won a total of 14 medals in the CAC Games – one gold, three silver and 10 bronze.

Guishard added that the CAC Games were perfect for Bermuda athletes hoping to go further and compete in bigger competitions like the Commonwealth Games, Pan American Games and Olympics.

"We have to be good in our region before we go on to something like the Olympics. And that is why so many sports and athletes are interested in competing in the CAC Games. These Games are the testing ground for our athletes."

Bermuda can expect to come up against athletes from Antigua and Barbuda, Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.