MONCTON - An international audience has now cast its collective gaze toward New Brunswick as the 2010 IAAF World Junior Track and Field Championships officially began in Moncton on Monday.
A capacity crowd of more than 10,000 people packed into the Stade Moncton 2010 Stadium for the opening ceremony of the week-long track and field competition.
The sold-out stadium, which was specifically commissioned for the track and field competition, was aglow with the flashbulbs of cameras as Saint John javelin thrower Caleb Jones led Team Canada in the parade of athletes with the country's flag in hand.
A colourfully choreographed display of New Brunswick's heritage entitled ?Birth of a Region' featuring more than 1,000 performers welcomed the world, as the flags of the more than 170 countries participating lined the circumference of the grandstands.
The ceremony hit its pinnacle with Prime Minister Stephen Harper declaring the championships officially open. He later awarded its first medals.
The ceremony, which lasted more than two hours, began with a Mi'kmaq legend explaining the chocolate waters of the Petitcodiac River and the region's famous tidal bore.
Elsipogtog First Nation youth dancers and drummers re-enacted the fable of the fight of the lobster and eel, a struggle so great that the once-clear water was disturbed and muddied forever.
Performers then ran onto the field with flags that together formed a ship with its masts unfurled, similar to the one that adorns the New Brunswick flag.
The 13-member team from Algeria led the parade of athletes into the stadium, followed in alphabetical order by each of the 170-plus nations that have fielded athletes.
Thousands of red-and-white clad attendees saved the loudest cheers for Team Canada, which entered last as the host nation.
Leading the Canadian delegation was Saint John's Caleb Jones, proudly carrying the Maple Leaf.
Jones was selected to lead the team as flag bearer after setting a new Canadian Junior Championship record in the men's javelin with a heave of 69.68 metres at the Canadian World Junior Trials in Moncton earlier this month.
The mark surpassed the record of 68.82 metres that was held by Scott Russell of Windsor, Ont. Russell competed in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Once the athletes had entered the stadium, From there, the ceremony chronicled the historic arrival of the Acadians as red, white and blue, stilt walkers converged with another performer representing the yellow star, the Stella Maris, the Acadian national symbol and patron of the mariners, to form the flag.
The colourful kilts of the Highland Dancing School then swarmed the field, while the province's Irish community was also paid a tribute through dance.
Harper, joined by Minister of State for Sport Gary Lunn and standing next to International Association of Athletic Federations president Lamine Diack of Senegal, rose from a dignitaries' seating area to officially declare the 2010 championships open.
The IAAF flag was carried into the stadium by six New Brunswickers chosen for the lasting impression they have made in the world of sports in New Brunswick.
Jean Corazza, a former javelin athlete and coach of Caleb Jones, Diane Clement, a sprinter from Moncton who competed in the Olympics in Melbourne, Pat Dobie, a national record-holder in discus, shot put and javelin from Fredericton, Sandra Barr, a former star in basketball and track and field from St. Stephen, LeRoy Washburn, a former Olympic official and Joel Bourgeois, a two-time Olympian who is now an Athletics Canada coach, carried the flag.
The competition actually began during the opening ceremony with the running of the women's 3,000-metre race - the first medal event of the championships.
The race marked the first time a medal event has ever been held during the opening of the world championships since its inception in 1986.
Defending world junior champion Mercy Cherono of Kenya became the first gold medallist of the championships, successfully defending her title in the race with a time of 8:55.07.
Caroline Pfister of Quebec, Team Canada's only entry in the 3,000-metre, finished in 22nd place with a time of 9:47.55, her best time of the season.
Eight trampolines sat centre-stage, providing acrobatic entertainment in the ceremony's closing moments before a CF-18 did a flypast of the stadium.
The celebration set the scene for an entire week of athletic competition.
Earlier in the day at the federation's first press conference, Diack said New Brunswick successfully bid for the championships with the help of Canada's strong reputation of hosting international events.
"The next few days will show that we were right," Diack said. "That this is the right place and the right time for Moncton."
There are now 43 medal events to go over the next six days.
Today, Moncton's own Geneviève Lalonde will compete in the 3,000-metre steeplechase.