L.A. Has Its Own Olympics : Track and field: Athletes, ages 8 to 18, will compete at Mt. SAC, beginning today.

With beautiful weather and so many talented track and field athletes, the Los Angeles area would seem to be a natural site for the Junior Olympics. But it never was--until now.

The 26th annual national competition, involving about 6,000 athletes from ages 8 to 18, begins at 8 a.m. today at Mt. San Antonio College’s Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut.

Bob Hickey, one of the meet directors, believes he knows why The Athletics Congress had not held the Junior Olympic championships in the Southland since 1981, when TAC took control of track and field events from the Amateur Athletic Union. In fact, they have been held in Southern California only once--in 1969 at San Diego.

“There was a strong resentment of the West Coast,” Hickey said.

The Southern California Assn. of TAC finally earned the championships by swaying more votes from TAC members than did a Northern California organization at the national convention two years ago.

Eleanor Jones, chairman of Youth Track and Field in the Southern California Assn. of TAC, said: “We think (we were awarded the meet) mainly because we were not going to charge any admission and we had shown ourselves to be interested in making it a memorable and favorable experience for the athletes and their families.”

Jones said one of the “special things” the Southern California Assn. of TAC did was to provide ribbons for the seventh- and eighth-place finishers, in addition to the medals that TAC awards the top six in each event.

She noted that the Junior Olympics are considered an opportunity to boost youth track and field, which “has taken a dive in Southern California, being eliminated at some high schools.”

Playing host to the Junior Olypics can be an economic boon, too. Last year’s championships were held in Chapel Hill, N.C., where the Chamber of Commerce estimated that the six-day event attracted 15,000 visitors, including athletes.

There are 15 individual events, three relays and multi-event competition. The athletes qualified on the basis of their performances in 16 regional meets.

Participants are divided into five age groups: bantam (10 and younger), midget (11-12), youth (13-14), intermediate (15-16) and young men/women (17-18).

The 1992 Junior Olympics will start with the multi-event competition--triathlon, heptathlon, pentathlon and decathlon--today and Wednesday. The individual and relay events are scheduled Thursday through Sunday. First events will be at 8 a.m. daily.

Notable local athletes include Michael Granville, 14, of Bell Gardens, who last month ran a 48.5-second 400 meters, a pending record in his age group; Angela Williams, 13, of Ontario, Calif., who set bantam girls’ records in the 100 and 200 meters two years ago; half-miler Brian Woodward, 18, of Long Beach Poly High, who will be running for Georgetown in the fall, and pole vaulter Maurice Mendoza, 18, of Hesperia, Calif.

The youth boys’ pentathlon will feature competition among the Southland’s Kenyon Rambo of Cerritos, Eric Patterson of Chino and Robbie Watson of Long Beach.