Nickisha Pryce has become the latest collegiate athlete from Jamaica to sign a NIL deal. The 22-year-old Pryce, now a junior at the University of Arkansas, has signed a deal with Puma, according to her announcement on Instagram on Tuesday evening.
A NIL deal is an agreement or arrangement between a student-athlete and a third party, such as a brand, company or individual, where the student-athlete receives compensation for the use of their name, image and likeness.
“New level unlocked. Very excited to be a part of the Puma family. It gives me great pleasure to share that I am now an officially recognized Puma NIL athlete. God’s timing is the right timing,” she said in her Instagram post.
The opportunity to earn while still competing at the collegiate level has come on the back of an outstanding season during which Pryce won a bronze medal in the 400m final at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor final at the Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas, in a then personal best time of 50.23 in June when she was also a member of the Razorback’s gold-medal winning 4x400m relay team.
She would go on to claim her first Jamaican national title at Jamaica’s national championship in Kingston in a new lifetime best to 50.21 in July.
At the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Pryce helped Jamaica to the 4x400m silver medal. Jamaica lost the gold medal at the death to a fast-finishing Netherlands team anchored by the incredible Femke Bol.
Pryce joins fellow Razorback student-athletes Wayne Pinnock and Jaydon Hibbert who have signed NIL deals with Puma. Pinnock, a two-time Jamaica national long jump champion, won the silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August while Hibbert, the 2023 world leader in the triple jump at 17.87m, won NCAA Division SEC and NCAA national Indoor and Outdoor titles last season.
Leighton Levy is a journalist with 28 years’ experience covering crime, entertainment, and sports. He joined the staff at SportsMax.TV as a content editor two years ago and is enjoying the experience of developing sports content and new ideas. At SportsMax.tv he is pursuing his true passion - sports.
Excelsior leads Jamaican 1-2-3 in Championship of America High School Boys 4x100m at Penn Relays
Excelsior High emerged victorious in the Championship of America High School Boys 4x100m on the third and final day at the 128th Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Their quartet of Ryeem Walker, Damor Miller, Malike Nugent and Lennon Green combined to run 40.45 to secure the school’s first win in the event since 1967.
Kingston College (Daniel Clarke, Yourie Lawrence-Clarke, Nyrone Wade, Marcinho Rose) were second in 40.53 and Herbert Morrison (Ky-Mani Hemmings, Tavaine Stewart, Chance Segree, De Andre Daley) completed a Jamaican 1-2-3 with 40.56 in third.
Smith produces season’s best to win long jump at Texas Invitational
Texas junior Ackelia Smith produced an NCAA leading performance to take top spot on day one of the Texas Invitational at the Mike A. Myers Stadium on Friday.
The 22-year-old reigning NCAA champion produced a season’s best 7.10m, her first jump over 7m this season, to win ahead of Trinidadian Puma athlete Tyra Gittens (6.72m) and UTSA’s Ida Breigan (6.65m).
This is a welcome return to form for Smith who suffered a torn hamstring at the NCAA Indoor Championships in early March.
Smith was Jamaica’s national champion in the long jump in 2022 and was a finalist in both the long and triple jump at that year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Paulino extends 400m winning streak to seven in Shanghai
Dom Rep’s Marileidy Paulino followed up her triumph at the season’s Diamond League opener in Xiamen last week with another victory at the Shanghai Diamond League on Saturday.
The reigning World champion produced 50.89 to win ahead of American Talitha Diggs who ran 51.77 and Bajan two-time World Championship bronze medallist Sada Williams who ran 52.00 in third.
Paulino’s winning streak in the 400m has now stretched to seven races.
It was déjà vu in the women’s 100m hurdles as reigning Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho Quinn just pipped World Indoor 60m hurdles champion and world record holder Devynne Charlton on the line, just as it played out in Xiamen last week.
Camacho-Quinn ran 12.63 compered to Charlton’s 12.64. Two-time World champion Danielle Williams was third in 12.74.
The men’s 110m hurdles saw American Daniel Roberts get his second win in a row to kick off the Diamond League season. His winning time was 13.12, comfortably ahead of Japan’s Shunsuke Izumiya (13.23) and Olympic champion Hansle Parchment’s season’s best 13.26.
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