PURPOSE: There is increasing evidence that muscular fitness (MF) is an important health marker in youth. The MF values for children and adolescents from various countries have been published, but there is a scarcity of reference values for Latin-American adolescents using handgrip (HG) strength. The aim of this study was to evaluate patterns of HG strength in relation to sex and age and to determine the relative proportion of Colombian children and adolescents that fall into established Health Benefit Zones (HBZ). METHODS: The sample comprised 7268 healthy Colombian schoolchildren [boys n=3129 and girls n=4139, mean (standard deviation) age 12.7 (2.4) years old]. HG was measured using a hand dynamometer with an adjustable grip (TKK 5401 Grip D; Takey, Tokyo, Japan). Centile smoothed curves, percentile and tables for the 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 97th percentile were calculated using Cole’s LMS method. RESULTS: HG peaked in the sample at 22.2 (8.9) kg in boys and 18.5 (5.5) kg in girls. The increase in HG was greater for boys than for girls, but the peak HG was lower in girls than in boys. Although absolute strength was greater in boys than in girls, the HBZ data indicated that a higher overall percentage of boys than girls at each age group fell into the “Needs Improvement” zone, with differences particularly pronounced during adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide, for the first time, sex- and age-specific HG reference standards for Colombian schoolchildren aged 9-17.9 years. These values are especially important in public health and educational settings and suggest the consideration of HBZ information in conjunction with HG to improve surveillance data interpretation and intervention planning among Colombian schoolchildren. Funding COLCIENCIAS (Contract N° 671-2014 Code 122265743978).