Danielle Williams, the 2019 World Championship bronze medallist, says she is humbled that she will be enshrined into the NCAA Division II Hall of Fame as a member of the 2020 Class.

As Sportsmax.tv reported last week, the 27-year-old Jamaican, the 2019 Diamond League champion, was a dominant force in Division II athletics during her time as a student of Johnson C Smith University.

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.

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.

In what she described as her crowning moment, Williams 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).

“It’s an honour to be inducted in the Division-2 Hall of Fame. If anybody knows me, they know I am really humbled by this accomplishment. I take pride in my collegiate career because I really had a wonderful career. Every accomplishment that I had set out to achieve I pretty much met and surpassed so I am incredibly honoured and it is moving to me to know that I did my best and it is now being recognised,” she told Sportsmax.TV.

Meanwhile, her coach Lennox Graham described the induction as an ‘awesome achievement’ for the athletes whom he has since guided to a world title in 2015 and the bronze medal in Doha in 2019.

“This is her moment of glory. I was blessed to be in the support role for her, mentoring her through those times, some difficult, some not so difficult, but it is pleasing and its an honour to be part of a journey like that,” said Graham who has two other athletes – Shermaine Williams (Danielle’s sister) and Leford Green, in the Division II Hall of Fame.

“It’s just a blessing. I feel like the hard work put in is recognized and I am so happy for her. As she journeys on, she will never forget this day when she was recognised among her peers as a Hall of Famer, something that most of us won’t live to have behind our names. So to be associated with one is just a blessing.”