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• Ackelia Smith wins long jump at Big 12 Championships with world leading 7.08m

  Texas’s Ackelia Smith continued her excellent 2023 season with a personal best 7.08m for victory at the 2023 Big 12 Outdoor Championships at John Jacobs Field in Oklahoma on Saturday.

  The 21-year-old had jumps of 6.74m and 6.61m in the first two rounds before jumping out to her massive new personal best and world leading jump in the third. She subsequently passed on her next three jumps.

  Oklahoma’s Pippi Lotta Enok produced 6.65m for second while Kansas State’s Shalom Olotu jumped 6.41 for third.

  On the track, St. Lucians had an excellent day. First, Kansas’s Michael Joseph ran a personal best 44.77 to advance fastest into the men’s 400m final. Texas’s Jonathan Jones also advanced to the final with 45.70.

  Then, Texas’s 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Julien Alfred, produced 10.74, albeit with a 3.4m/s wind, to advance fastest to the women’s 100m final.

  Texas also had the second and third fastest qualifiers to the women’s 100m final through Kevona Davis (10.93) and Ezinne Abba (10.93).

  Bahamian Terrence Jones ran 10.35 to advance third fastest in the men’s equivalent.

  The 100m hurdles saw Jamaican Texas Tech senior Demisha Roswell advance fastest with 12.92.

  Roswell’s Bahamian Texas Tech teammate, Antoine Andrews, ran 13.57 to advance in the men’s 110m hurdles.

• American Triple Jump legend Mike Conley Sr describes Jaydon Hibbert as “special”- “He was born to do it”

  Olympic and World triple jump champion, Mike Conley Sr, has described Jamaican Arkansas freshman Jaydon Hibbert as “special” and said he was “born for the sport.”

  Conley Sr, the 60-year-old Arkansas alum who won Olympic gold in 1992 in Barcelona with a wind-aided 18.17m jump as well as a World Championship title in Stuttgart with a 17.86m effort a year later, was speaking in an interview on his alma mater’s Instagram page on Saturday.

  “He’s special. I got a chance to see him when they recruited him. I saw some video of him from the World Juniors and got a chance to meet him and talk to him. He’s a way better jumper than I ever was technique-wise. It took me almost a lifetime to look like he looks as a freshman so he’s a special guy,” said Conley Sr.

  At those World Juniors in Cali in 2022, Hibbert produced a personal best and championship record 17.27m to take gold.

  “It’s amazing. When I saw him at the juniors I just said ‘wow.’ For his form and technique to be advanced as it is, he was born to do it and he puts in the work on top of it. That’s usually the recipe for greatness,” said Conley Sr.

  Hibbert has enjoyed an excellent debut season at Arkansas. The 18-year-old has, so far, gone unbeaten in three competitions indoors and two outdoors.

  At the NCAA Indoor championships in Albuquerque in March, Hibbert made history with a leap of 17.54m, a new World Under-20 record, to win the title. Hibbert’s jump also broke Conley Sr’s collegiate record 17.40m.

  Outdoors, he followed up a gold medal at the Carifta Games in Nassau on April 10 with a 17.17m effort to win at the LSU Invitational on April 29.

  He is also a heavy favorite to win the title at the SEC Outdoor Championships which are currently being held at LSU.

  “He seems humble, eager to learn and he works hard. Like I said, that’s a good recipe for success,” Conley Sr added.

  Conley Sr’s personal best 17.87, done in June 1987, places him 13^th on the all-time list for the event.

   

   

• Hydel High School Head Coach Corey Bennett optimistic of continued success despite losing star athletes

  With some at least two of his star athletes matriculating to college this fall, Hydel High School Head Coach Corey Bennett will be hard-pressed to fill those massive shoes when the new high school track season rolls around.

   However, he is optimistic he can find his next set of starlets from within remaining members of team that won their first girls title at the ISSA GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Championships in Jamaica earlier this month.

  Over the past few seasons, Hydel High School has seen a number of their top athletes matriculate to colleges in the United States or have gone pro. Athletes like Oneka Wilson, Shardia and Shadae Lawrence, Charokee Young and others have gone on to further their studies, testament to the school’s emphasis on finding balance between academics and athletics.

  Meanwhile, others like Commonwealth Games silver medallist and NACAC Champion Shiann Salmon and Ashanti Moore have gone pro. Young subsequently chose to forego her college eligibility to sign a professional contract last summer.

  In 2022, Hydel lost 2022 World U20 200m champion Brianna Lyston to Louisiana State University (LSU) on a scholarship and World U20 sprint hurdles champion and world record holder Kerrica Hill chose to go the professional route.

  This coming fall, Alana Reid and Onieka McAnnuff will be the next to leave. Reid, who set a new championship and national junior record of 10.92 at Champs, will begin classes at the University of Oregon while McAnnuff, the talented 400m hurdler and team captain, will take up a scholarship to the University of Kentucky.

  Losing them will undoubtedly have significant impact on Hydel’s ability to defend their historic Champs title but Bennett remains optimistic.

  “When you have a world-record holder last year leaving prematurely and a record holder at Champs – Brianna and Kerrica leaving – it does set you back and that’s why we take the pressure of winning off the team,” he said.

  “It’s just a matter of who else can we put out there that can excel. I thought we had some good performances (at Champs). I want to highlight Jody-Ann Daley, who won the 400m and the hurdles even when at one point she didn’t want to do the hurdles and I said ‘no, come on, you can do it’,” Bennett said.

  “And Shemonique Hazle in the 200 when nobody gave her a chance, we believed. We are a small team about 34-members strong and we believe that no matter what, each one can go out there and give of their best and we delivered.

  “Let’s hope that next year the girls will come inspired to give of themselves, train hard to be the best versions of themselves and with trust in God with the process.”

  Bennett’s comments are in line with his over-arching philosophy of how to build strong teams with limited resources and personnel at Hydel. He revealed that with a four-member team in 2010, Hydel’s first year at Champs, they finished 11^th.

   For him, the focus has always been on quality than quantity.

  “I am still going to build individuals. If I can make the individuals better, then ultimately the team will be better. I am not going to just go and throw persons into events just to win a championship. It is about being very individualistic and getting the best out of persons,” he said.

  “Alliah Baker is our top high jumper. She high-jumped in Class IV and got a medal but she is a runner. We want to focus on where we think she will be better so we are not going to seek points, points will seek us. We want to maintain excellence in our girls.”