Danielle Williams, the 2015 World 100m hurdles champion and 2019 bronze medallist will be enshrined in the USTFCCCA NCAA Division II Track & Field Athlete Hall of Fame as the Class of 2020.

According to the USTFCCCA, Williams, who is among six Division II athletes to be inducted, was a shoo-in for the honour from the moment she graduated from Johnson C Smith University in 2014.

“If there wasn’t a mandatory five-year moratorium on induction into the USTFCCCA NCAA Division II Track & Field Athlete Hall of Fame, Danielle Williams of Johnson C. Smith probably would have been welcomed immediately after she stepped off the track for the last time as a collegian at the 2014 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships,” they said.

“Simply put: Williams transcended the NCAA Division II level.”

Transcend she did.

“Between 2013 and 2014, Williams won nine NCAA titles (eight individual, one relay), 13 CIAA championships (11 individual, two relays), earned 13 All-America honours and was named either USTFCCCA National Women’s Indoor Track or Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year three times.

That doesn’t even count the mark she left on the NCAA DII record book, which includes three divisional all-time bests and a slew of other marks that reside in the top-10 annals of history.”

According to the USTFCCCA, Williams turned in arguably the greatest two-day performance in NCAA DII history at the 2013 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Pueblo, Colorado, where she helped lead the Golden Bulls to their second consecutive runner-up finish in the team standings.

“The future IAAF world champion scored 30½ points thanks to event titles in the 100, 200 and 4×100 relay, as well as a runner-up finish in the 100 Hurdles. She set current divisional records in the 200 (22.62) and 4×100 relay (44.05), clocked the second-fastest performance in divisional history in the 100H (12.89) and notched the fifth-fastest performance in the 100 (11.24).”

Williams is the third athlete from Johnson C. Smith inducted into the USTFCCCA NCAA Division II Track & Field Athlete Hall of Fame in the past four years, joining Leford Green (Class of 2017) and her sister Shermaine Williams (Class of 2018).