In a bid to overcome a disappointing NCAA season, her last, 100m hurdler Demisha Roswell is determined to prove her worth and earn a spot on Jamaica's team for the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

Her disappointment is further deepened considering her desire to pursue a professional career as an athlete. “That’s the reason I started in the beginning,” lamented the Texas Tech senior, whose 2023 season-best time of 12.77 was well shy of her lifetime best of 12.44 set at the Big 12 Championships last year. By comparison, even though she successfully defended her Big 12 title in early May, her winning time was 13.02, more than 0.5s slower.

Despite facing setbacks during her final year in college, Roswell remains focused on regaining her form and showcasing her talents on the international stage.

Reflecting on her NCAA season, Roswell candidly shared her disappointment, revealing that things didn't go as planned. As a senior athlete, she had hoped to make a significant impact, but various undisclosed issues affected her performance. However, she clarified that she did not sustain any injuries during that time, emphasizing that it was simply a period of struggle and unfulfilled expectations.

"I wasn't injured but to be honest, my season didn't go as planned, and it made me upset because I'm a senior and I didn't prove myself," said Roswell, who missed out on the NCAA Championships 100m hurdles final by 0.08s after running 12.99, the 11^th fastest time from the semi-finals. "I had some issues that I can't share with the world, but no, I'm not injured. It just wasn't my shine."

Despite the disappointment, Roswell remains determined to turn her fortunes around. She is currently focusing on improving her technique and preparing herself for the championship trials, where she aims to secure a place on Jamaica's team for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, scheduled for August.

When asked about her most memorable moment from her collegiate career, Roswell highlighted winning the Big 12 championships in 2022 when she ran her lifetime best to beat her more celebrated compatriot and rival Ackera Nugent and the opportunity to meet other talented athletes from around the world. The experience of connecting with like-minded individuals has fueled her passion for the sport and motivates her to strive for success.

She also acknowledged the invaluable support of her coaches, including Calvin Robinson, who has played a significant role in her athletic and personal development. She also expressed gratitude towards Zach, another influential figure in her journey, for encouraging her to learn and grow from setbacks rather than letting them deter her.

"My coaches are amazing, and I love and appreciate them," Roswell praised. "Calvin Robinson is like a father to me, someone I can go to and tell anything without judgment. He pushed me academically to continue working hard to earn a college degree, which I'm graduating in August. But yeah, good people."

With her sights set firmly on Budapest, Roswell has made it clear that her ultimate goal is to represent Jamaica at the World Athletics Championships. She is determined to shine at the national championships trials and leave no doubt about her readiness to compete on the international stage.

Texas’s Julien Alfred will have a chance to defend her NCAA Outdoor 100m title after securing her spot in the field on the final day of the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento on Saturday.

The 21-year-old St. Lucian, who won the NCAA Indoor 60m and 200m double earlier this season, sped to a meet record and collegiate leading time of 10.83 to comfortably be the fastest qualifier to the Championships set for June 7-10 on her home track at the University of Texas's Mike A. Myers stadium.

Her Jamaican teammate, Kevona Davis, also made it through the preliminaries with an 11.06 effort.

The Texas duo also made it through in the 200m with Davis running a season’s best 22.33 and Alfred running 22.45.

Arkansas’s Ackera Nugent, a two-time NCAA Indoor Champion, ran 12.69, a new meet record to advance fastest in the sprint hurdles. Her countrywoman, Texas Tech’s Demisha Roswell, also made it through with a season’s best 12.77.

Arkansas’s Nickisha Price and Joanne Reid both advanced in the one-lap event with personal best times of 50.49 and 51.49, respectively.

In the field, defending NCAA high jump champion, Lamara Distin of Texas A&M, easily cleared 1.85m to secure her opportunity to defend her title. Texas’s Ackelia Smith, world leader in the long jump, also booked her spot in the field for the triple jump with 13.96m.

Meanwhile, at the East Regionals in Jacksonville, Ohio State’s Yanique Dayle and Kentucky’s Anthaya Charlton made it through in the 100m.

Dayle, the Jamaican Senior, produced a big personal best 11.05 while Charlton, the Bahamian Freshman, produced 11.08 (2.3 m/s) to advance.

Dayle also advanced in the 200m with a season’s best 22.58 while LSU’s Brianna Lyston also made it through with 22.92.

In the field, Georgia’s Vincentian Junior, Mikeisha Welcome, jumped 13.50m to make it through in the triple jump.

Julien Alfred was crowned 2023 Big 12 Outdoor 100m champion on Sunday after winning the blue-ribbon dash in 10.84, a new facility record.

Alfred was part of a Texas 1-2-3 as Kevona Davis and Ezinne Abba were second and third, respectively in 11.04s. Davis, however, was clocked at 11.031 to Abba’s 11.035.

Aldred copped a second gold medal when she teamed up with Davis, Abba, and Rhasidat Adekele to win the 4x100m relay in 41.89. The time was a new collegiate, Big 12 and Facility record.

Baylor was a distant second in 43.75. They just managed to hold off Oklahoma that finished third in 43.84.

Bahamian Terrence Jones finished second in the men’s equivalent in a time of 10.08, the same time as his Texas Tech teammate of Courtney Lindsay. Lindsay clocked 10.076 to Jones’ 10.080.

Marcellus Moore of Texas ran 10.17 for third place.

Jones would later anchor Texas Tech to victory in the men’s 4x100m in a new Big 12 and facility record 38.24. It was also the fastest time in the NCAA this season. Texas and Baylor ran 38.89 and 39.12 for second and third, respectively.

Meanwhile, Texas Tech’s Demisha Roswell, successfully defended her 100m hurdles title but was not nearly as fast as she was last season when she ran 12.44 to hold off a game Ackera Nugent who was then at Baylor University.

Roswell, who is in her final year at Texas Tech, clocked 13.02 to end her collegiate career as Big 12 champion.  Kaylyn Hall of Iowa State finished the race in 13.17 for second place while Roswell’s teammate Naomi Krebbs clocked 13.33 for third place.

Roswell was also a member of the Texas Tech sprint relay team that finished fourth in 43.85.

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.

Seventeen-year-old Adaejah Hodge set a new national 100m record and won the 200m dash at the 2023 Corky/Crofoot Shootout in Lubbock, Texas on Saturday when Jamaica’s Demisha Roswell, Bahamian Antoine Andrews and the Virgin Islands’ Michelle Smith enjoyed victories.

It is not often that Hodge, the BVI’s sprint phenom, loses a race but even so still found a silver-lining when she finished second in the 100m behind Oklahoma’s Kennedy Blackmon, who took gold in 11.06.

Hodge’s 11.11 for second was a new personal best and a national record, eclipsing the 11.12 set in June 2011 by Tahesia Harrigan.

Success Umukoro of South Plains Junior College was third in 11.29.

Hodge would turn the tables on Blackmon in the 200m which she won in 22.31, which would have broken Harrigan’s national record of 22.98 had it not been for the five-metre-per-second trailing wind. Hodge, by the way, owns the World U20 200m indoor record of 22.33 set in Boston in March.

Blackmon finished second in 22.56 while Serena Clarke of Texas Tech was third in 23.07.

Anderson of the Bahamas ran out a comfortable winner in the 110m hurdles. The Texas Tech freshman clocked 13.46 as Justin Guy of South Plains and Taylor Rooney of Texas Tech ran 13.57 and 13.88 for second and third, respectively.

Roswell, the 2022 Big 12 100m hurdles champion Roswell was the only competitor under 13 seconds in the 100m hurdles taking the event in 12.89.

Her Texas Tech teammate Naomi Krebs, a freshman was second in 13.25. Nex Mexico’s Ese Awusa ran 13.57 for third place.

Smith, the 2023 Carifta Games U20 400m champion, had a battle on her hands but found enough to hold off Daneesha Davidson, clocking 56.66 to Davidson’s 56.69 in the blanket finish. Sylvia Schulz was third in 57.08.

Grace Obour of Western Texas College, by a wide margin, won the 400m in 52.71 over New Mexico’s Deshana Skeete, who took the runner-up spot in 54.02. Jamaica’s Rushana Dwyer who attends South Plains Junior College finished third after crossing the line in 54.43.

Zarik Brown of Oklahoma ran 45.38 for a comfortable victory in the men’s one-lap race with DeSean Bryce of Western Texas finishing in second place in 46.19. The South Plains duo of Kimar Farquharson and Jeremy Bembridge were third and fourth, respectively, in the same time of 46.28.

Jamaica's Arkansas sophomore Ackera Nugent broke Michelle Freeman’s 25-year-old national indoor 60m hurdles record on her way to becoming the fastest qualifier for the final at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Friday.

Nugent, 20, ran a spectacular new personal best 7.72 to win heat one, breaking Freeman’s record of 7.74 done in Gainesville in 1998, to set up an exciting clash in Saturday’s final between herself and Kentucky senior Masai Russell, who ran 7.78 to win heat two.

Nugent’s time is also a new collegiate record, world lead and meet record.

 Texas Tech senior, Jamaica's Demisha Roswell also advanced to the final after running a personal best 7.92 to finish third in heat one.

St. Lucian Commonwealth Games silver medallist Julien Alfred and Jamaican sprint hurdler Demisha Roswell struck gold for Texas and Texas Tech, respectively, at the Big 12 Indoor Championships at the Sports Performance Center in Lubbock, Texas on Saturday.

Texas’ Alfred, who set a then-meet record of 7.03 in the heats on Friday, became the first woman in NCAA history to break the 7-second barrier by speeding to 6.97 to win Saturday’s final ahead of Texas Tech junior Rosemary Chukwuma (7.17) and Alfred’s Texas teammate Ezinne Abba (7.17). Alfred’s time.

The St. Lucian senior now owns the six fastest 60m times in NCAA history and 6.97 puts the 21-year-old in a three-way tie for eighth on the all-time list alongside the Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahoure and the USVI’s Laverne Jones-Ferrette.

It also puts her second in the world in 2023 behind American Aleia Hobbs’ 6.94 at the US Indoor Championships in New Mexico on February 18.

Elsewhere, Jamaican Texas Tech senior Demisha Roswell produced a time of 8.04 to defend her 60m hurdles title. Kansas’ Gabrielle Gibson ran 8.11 for second while Iowa State’s Katarina Vlahovic ran 8.25 for third.

For more than a decade now, Jamaica’s women have bossed the 100m.  Veronica Campbell-Brown won Jamaica’s first global 100m gold medal in Osaka in 2007 and since then Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah have basically made the 100m their own with the former winning five world titles and two Olympic titles while Thompson won back to back 100m titles in Brazil in 2016 and 2021 in Tokyo, Japan where she established a new Olympic record of 10.61.

However, with their dominance of the blue-ribbon sprint at its zenith, the women from the land of wood and water seem poised to begin dominating yet another event, the 100m hurdles. Since the 1990s, Jamaica has done reasonably well at the sprint hurdles.

Michelle Freeman was the first Jamaican woman to reach a global final and eventually won won global medals in 1993 and 1997. Dionne Rose and Freeman were Jamaica's first ever Olympic finalists, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively in 1996.

The following year Freeman and Gillian Russell, a 1995 World Championships finalist, went 1-2 at the World Indoor Championships.

Brigitte Foster-Hylton and Delloreen Ennis-London picked up from them with the former winning silver  at the 2003 World Championships, bronze in 2005. Ennis-London won a silver and bronze at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships respectively.

Foster-Hylton made the breakthrough at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin with a fantastic run to give Jamaica gold, Ennis-London won the bronze. Danielle Williams won Jamaica’s second 100m hurdles gold in Beijing 2015 in Beijing and followed with a bronze medal in 2019.

Two years later, Megan Tapper created history for Jamaica when she became the first-ever Jamaican woman to win a medal in the 100m hurdles at an Olympic Games when she captured bronze in Tokyo, Japan.

Then at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Britany Anderson, a finalist in Tokyo in 2021, won silver in the sprint hurdlers.

Tapper and Anderson are among a growing cadre of Jamaican female sprint hurdlers who are among the very best in the world. Among them are Ackera Nugent, the World U20 60m hurdles record holder who opened her 2023 season with a time of 8.00 indoors and Demisha Roswell, who ran a personal best 12.44 and is the fastest Jamaican woman in the world this year over the 60m hurdles with a 7.98 clocking this past weekend.

There is also hope that former national record holder Janeek Brown will make a successful return to the event this season after two years of disruption in her personal life and athletic career. Perhaps, the most talented of the lot is 17-year-old Kerrica Hill, who last year succeeded Nugent as World Under 20 champion and who recently turned professional.

In 2022, Jamaica had four of the 10 fastest women in the world. The USA also had four while Puerto Rico and Nigeria had one each.

 If Jamaica’s women are to reach the pinnacle and find some level of dominance it will require a lot of technical work and consistently fast hurdling to get there but if the 100m women are anything to go by, nothing is beyond their reach.

Healthy again and armed with a new mindset, Demisha Roswell is intent on making her senior year count for Texas Tech in the NCAA this season.

The 25-year-old former Vere Technical athlete impressed on Friday, January 20, when she ran 7.98 over 60m to finish second to Masai Russell at the Red Raider Open in Lubbock, Texas.

Kentucky’s Russell won in a world-leading 7.75 but Roswell’s time made her the fastest Jamaican woman in the world this year after eclipsing the 8.00 run by Arkansas’ Ackera Nugent in Fayetteville, Arkansas on January 13.

It was a welcome return to form from injury for Roswell, who defeated Nugent to win the Big 12 Championships last May, running an outdoor personal best 12.44 for the 100m hurdles.

However, her celebrations were short-lived as an injury slowed her significantly for the remainder of the season. She was seventh at the NCAA Division I Championships in a pedestrian 12.94 and just missed out on a place on Jamaica’s team to the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, when she finished fourth at the Jamaican championships in 12.83.

Since then, the work she has put in to get healthy again has been  paying off but it wasn’t easy.

“The background work was somewhat tough for me because I was struggling with my injury plus my mentals, but it paying off little by little,” she said.

“It (rehab) went well even though I hate it but my coach and trainer were very tough on me to get me back where I’m supposed to be.

“The time didn’t surprise me at all, to be honest. I’m confident about this season so I’m hoping I keep healthy.”

Roswell also revealed that she is approaching the new season with a different mindset. She is more focused and committed to being successful this season as she intends to leave her mark in her final year in the NCAA.

“I want more this year and I want my name to be remembered,” she said.

Clemson sprinter Kiara Grant started her 2023 collegiate season in ominous form with a personal best and world leading 7.09 seconds to win the 60m at the Red Raider Open at the Sports Performance Centre in Lubbock, Texas on Friday.

The 22-year-old former Alpha standout’s time was also a new ACC record, shattering Tonya Carter’s record of 7.15 seconds, which had stood for 23 years. She is also now the joint eighth-fastest Jamaican in the event.

American Marybeth Sant-Price, the World Indoor bronze medalist from last year, was second in 7.18 with Sedrickia Wynn of Texas State taking third place with a time of 7.35.

Elsewhere, Jamaican Texas Tech sprint hurdler Demisha Roswell produced a time of 7.98 seconds to finish second in the 60m hurdles.

The 25-year-old Vere Technical alum, who lowered her 100m hurdles personal best to 12.44 last season, was beaten by Kentucky’s Masai Russell who ran a collegiate record 7.75 for victory.

LSU’s Leah Phillips was third in 8.14.

She is one of the fastest women in the world in the 100m hurdles but Ackera Nugent, the second-fastest Jamaican woman on the planet this year, is not considering turning professional just yet. According to the reigning World U20 champion, getting an education is among her goals and she still has unfinished business as a collegiate athlete.

Nugent, 20, who completed her sophomore year at Baylor University in May, ran a personal best of 12.45 at the Big 12 Championships in Lubbock, Texas on May 15.

The time, which she shares with Jamaican champion Britany Anderson, is the sixth-fastest in the world this year. Only Texas Tech’s Demisha Roswell’, who ran 12.44 to beat Nugent at the Big 12 Championships has run faster.

Notwithstanding, what is a significant accomplishment, Nugent is focused on completing her education at Baylor where she is majoring in Psychology.

“Basically, having an education with track is very important, so if I decide to go pro, I’d still be going to school but I have only ran 12.4 once and I haven’t run healthy, so I have decided that I should come back to college and focus on trying to get an outdoor NCAA title,” said the 2021 NCAA National Indoor champion.

Two years of college, she said, have been a great learning experience for her.

“It has taught me a lot. That I need to expect the unexpected, that you will have your highs and lows but you have to get up and do what you have to do, especially not having your family around you, your support system and when you have to put your trust in a coaching staff, a medical team,” she explained.

“It has helped me grow so much. I am more mature and Baylor is helping me grow into the amazing athlete that I think I am today.”

Nugent shut down her season in June after tearing her plantar fascia in regionals earlier this year. The decision saw her miss the NCAA Division I nationals in Oregon and also the Jamaica National Championships at the end of June.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson, Yohan Blake and Oblique Seville lead a strong 64-member Jamaica team named to compete at the 2022 World Athletics Championships from July 15-24, 2022. Also included as first-timers are 800m champion Navasky Anderson and Adelle Tracey, who will compete in both 800 and 1500m.

Tracey, an American-born middle distance runner, who also represented Great Britain, recently received her official status as a Jamaican athlete. Tracey, who spent a part of her early childhood in the parish of Manchester, will join newly crowned national champion Chrisann Gordon Powell and eight-time national champion Natoya Goule in the 800m.

Meanwhile, Fraser-Pryce, Thompson-Herah, Jackson and Kemba Nelson, will contest the 100m with Briana Williams listed as an alternate. Fraser-Pryce, Jackson and Thompson-Herah will take on the 200m with Natalliah Whyte named as the alternate.

Seville, Blake and Ackeem Blake will run in the 100m. Jelani Walker is listed as the alternate. However, Andrew Hudson, who won the 200m at Jamaica’s national championships last weekend misses out as he remains ineligible to compete for Jamaica until July 28, four days after the championships end in Eugene, Oregon.

In his stead, Akeem Bloomfield will compete in the 200m alongside Rasheed Dwyer and Yohan Blake.

Candice McLeod, Stephenie-Ann McPherson and Charokee Young will compete in the 400m with Stacey-Ann Williams named as the alternate. Jevaughn Powell, Nathon Allen and Christopher Taylor will take on the men’s event.

Demisha Roswell, the fastest Jamaican woman over 100m hurdles this year, is named as an alternate to national champion Britany Anderson, Megan Tapper and Danielle Williams. Damion Thomas is the alternate in the 110m hurdles that will be represented by Olympic champion Hansle Parchment, Rasheed Broadbell and Orlando Bennett.

There is also good news for Andrenette Knight, the fastest Jamaican woman over the 400m hurdles this year. Knight, who has run 53.39 this season, is the alternate in the event that Janieve Russell, Shian Salmon and Rushell Clayton will compete in at the championships.

For the first time ever, Jamaica will have two female high jumpers at a world championship as NCAA champion Lamara Distin and Kimberly Williamson, were both selected.

Chanice Porter has been selected for the long jump while defending champion Tajay Gayle has been selected along with NCAA champion Wayne Pinnock. Gayle injured his knee at the national championships and is in a race against time to prove his fitness.

Shanieka Ricketts, Kimberly Williams and Ackelia Smith will represent Jamaica in the triple jump while Jordan Scott will compete in the men’s event.

Danielle Thomas-Dodd and Lloydricia Cameron will contest the shot put for women. Samantha Hall competes in the discus while national champion Traves Smikle, world championship silver medallist Fedrick Dacres, and Chad Wright are set to compete among the men.

Jamaica will field strong 4x100m relay squads at the championships as Fraser-Pryce, Thompson-Herah, Jackon and Nelson will form the core of the team along with Olympic gold medallist Williams and Remona Burchell.

The men’s squad is comprised of Blake, Blake, Seville, Jelani Walker, Kemar Bailey-Cole and Conroy Jones.

The 4x400m squads will be comprised of McLeod, Young, McPherson, Williams, Roneisha McGregor and Natalliah Whyte while the men’s squad will include Powell, Allen, Taylor, Karayme Bartley, Javon Francis and Anthony Cox.

Junelle Bromfield, Tiffany James, Akeem Bloomfield and St Jago High School runner Gregory Prince will form the mixed relay team.

Sprintec head coach Maurice Wilson has been appointed technical director of the contingent and he will have Paul Francis, Bertland Cameron, Lennox Graham, Julian Robinson, Marlon Gayle, Reynaldo Walcott, Lamar Richards and Gregory Little as his team of coaches.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson all safely advanced to Sunday’s Women’s 200m final as action continued on day three of the 2022 Jamaican National Senior Athletics Championships at the National Stadium in Kingston on Saturday.

The three 100m medalists from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics all looked extremely easy to win their semi-finals in 22.54, 22.68 and 22.85, respectively.

Jackson, who secured the 100m title on Friday, looked especially easy, completely shutting down in the last 100m of the race.

Natalliah Whyte (23.05), Ashanti Moore (23.21), Kevona Davis (23.33), Jodean Williams (23.21) and Dominique Clarke (23.29) will join them in the final.

Meanwhile, 100m Champion Yohan Blake led all qualifiers to the Men’s final with a season’s best 20.20 to win his semi-final ahead of Andrew Hudson (20.23).

2020 Olympic finalist Rasheed Dwyer will also contest Sunday’s final after producing 20.35 to win his semi-final ahead of Nigel Ellis (20.45).

Mario Heslop (20.52), Riquan Graham (20.66), Jazeel Murphy (20.67) and Antonio Watson (20.74) complete the line-up for the final.

NCAA Championships silver medalist Charokee Young (50.19), 2020 Olympic finalist Candice McLeod (50.85), Stacey-Ann Williams (50.87) and 2013 World Championship bronze medalist Stephenie Ann McPherson (50.67) led all qualifiers to the Women’s 400m final.

The men were led by Jevaughn Powell (45.38), Anthony Cox (45.43), Nathon Allen (45.52) and Akeem Bloomfield (45.59).

The qualifiers for the Women’s sprint hurdles final were led by Britany Anderson (12.45), Megan Tapper (12.61), 2015 World Champion Danielle Williams (12.59) and Demisha Roswell (12.84).

Reigning Olympic Champion Hansle Parchment (13.24), Orlando Bennett (13.27), Rasheed Broadbell (13.29) and 2016 Olympic and 2017 World Champion Omar McLeod (13.36) led the qualifiers to the Men’s 110m hurdles final.

In the field, 2019 World Championship silver medalist Danniel Thomas-Dodd threw 18.79m to win her seventh national title ahead of Lloydricia Cameron (16.96m) and Danielle Sloley (15.98m).

Wayne Pinnock added to his NCAA Indoor and Outdoor titles earlier this season with a personal best 8.14m to win the Men’s long jump ahead of defending World Champion Tajay Gayle (7.97m) and Shawn-D Thompson (7.88m).

Expect the unexpected!

That’s the word from 2021 World U20 champion Ackera Nugent, who was responding to a question about who she thinks will emerge victorious in the 100m hurdles at Jamaica’s National Senior Championships that get underway at the National Stadium in Kingston on Thursday, June 23.

Nugent, who turned 20 in April, will miss the championships because of injury but is already on the mend as she targets a triumphant return to the track for her junior year at Baylor University. As the second fastest Jamaican woman in the world this year, Nugent will be missed but the field that will assemble is stacked.

Among the women contending for the top three spots will be Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Megan Tapper, 2015 World Championships gold medalist Danielle Williams, who is also the 2019 bronze medallist, 2022 Big 12 Conference Champion Demisha Roswell, Britany Anderson, Crystal Morrison, and Trishauna Hemmings among others.

However, Nugent perhaps one of the most talented hurdlers in her country’s history, was not willing to put her neck on the block given how keenly contested Sunday’s final is expected to be.

“Well, the hurdles is an event that you can’t really have expectations on it because anything can happen in those 12-13-seconds of the race,” she reasoned.

“So it’s a thing where you have to expect the unexpected.”

She does expect to be back better and stronger than ever for the coming 2022/2023 NCAA season.

Mere days after running a personal best 12.45 to finish second to Roswell at the Big 12 Championships, Nugent, citing injury, shut down her season in early June. It was a decision that meant that she would miss the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships in Oregon as well as Jamaica’s National Championships where she was expected to be among the athletes making the team to the World Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, where the NCAA Championships were also held.

She revealed the circumstances that led to her decision.

“I had been having ankle problems this season more than normal but I was able to compete but at regionals, running the 4x100m I tore my plantar fascia (the thick tendon that connects the heel and the toes) and it was really bad,” she recalled.

Despite the injury, she said, she soldiered on, which made things worse.

“Knowing me as somebody that’s like ‘I have a next race to go do, let’s knock it out the way. I took some pain killers and I wrapped my leg up and went out there to compete and when I realized in the race it was getting really bad I slowed up and was still able to make nationals and then I looked and saw how swollen my foot was and I was like ‘I don’t think I have enough time to recover and make it for nationals’ so I decided to close my season down.”

As it stands, she is now able to walk and can run a little but thinks it best to give herself time to heal ahead of next season. “I don’t think it’s a smart decision to run so now I will be focusing on recovering, rehabbing and getting stronger. I have enough time to get better, to get stronger so I will be ready for next year,” she said.

Texas duo Julien Alfred and Kevona Davis as well as Syracuse’s Joella Lloyd and Oregon’s Kemba Nelson will all be present in Saturday’s 100m final, at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships, after advancing from the semi-finals at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on Thursday.

Alfred, the St. Lucian national record holder in the event, won her semi-final in 10.90 to be the joint-fastest qualifier to the final. Nelson also dipped below 11 seconds, running 10.97 to win her semi-final.

Jamaica’s Davis finished third in her semi-final with a time of 11.11 to advance while the Antiguan Lloyd finished second in her semi with 11.08. Davis and Lloyd also advanced in the 200m with times of 22.38 and 22.66, respectively.

The Jamaican pair of Stacey Ann Williams of Texas and Charokee Young of Texas A&M will both be in the 400m final. Williams ran 50.18 to finish second in her semi-final while Young won hers in a time of 50.46.

Texas Tech’s Jamaican junior Demisha Roswell ran 12.93 to finish second in her semi-final of the 100m hurdles and progress.

Texas senior and Trinidad and Tobago Olympian Tyra Gittens jumped 6.57m for third in the long jump behind Florida’s Jasmine Moore (6.72m) and Texas A&M’s Deborah Acquah (6.60m).