World Under-20 triple jump record holder Jaydon Hibbert was named by World Athletics on Monday as one of three finalists for the 2024 Men’s Rising Star Award.

In 2024, Hibbert was the World U-20 leader in the event with his 17.75m done at the Racers Grand prix on June 1 at the National Stadium in Kingston.

At the Paris Olympics in August, the 19-year-old narrowly missed out on a medal, jumping 17.61m to finish fourth by .03 centimeters.

The other two finalists are Italian World Under-20 long jump record holder Mattia Furlani, who also took home World Indoor silver and Olympic bronze, and the Netherlands’ Niels Laros who broke the World U-20 1000m record and finished sixth at the Paris Olympics in the 1500m.

The winner of the award will be announced on December 1.

2022 World 100m champion Fred Kerley has his sights set on Usain Bolt’s 15-year-old 100m World Record.

In fact, the 29-year-old says that the next time he does the event, he will become the fastest man ever.

“World record next time I touch the 100m,” Kerley said on Twitter on Tuesday.

Usain Bolt’s mark stands at an incredible 9.58 done to win his maiden World Championship gold medal at the Berlin World Championships on August 16, 2009.

Bolt is the only man to ever run faster than 9.60 with Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake the only other men to run sub 9.70.

Gay and Blake both have a personal best of 9.69 to be joint-second on the all-time list.

Kerley, one of the only athletes ever to go sub-10 in the 100m, sub-20 in the 200m and sub-44 in the 400m, has a personal best of 9.76 done at the World Championships in 2022 in Eugene where he went on to claim 100m gold.

His time puts him in a three-way tie for sixth all-time alongside countrymen Christian Coleman and Trayvon Bromell.

Asafa Powell (9.72), Justin Gatlin (9.74) and Ferdinand Omanyala (9.77) make up the top ten.

This season, Kerley has competed four times in the 100m. He opened his season with a win at the Hurricane Invitational on March 16 in Coral Gables, Florida with 10.03 and followed that up at the same venue on April 6 in the Hurricane Alumni Invitational with 10.11 to also come out on top.

Kerley then competed at the season’s first two Diamond League events in Xiamen and Suzhou on April 20 and 27, respectively. He first ran 10.17 to finish second in Xiamen before running 10.11 for third in Suzhou.

He most recently competed at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational on May 11 where he ran 20.17 to finish second in the men’s 200m.

Defending champion Corinaldi Avenue Primary of St James raced to a 13-point lead on the penultimate day of the INSPORTs/Devon Biscuits Primary Schools Western Athletics Championships on Friday.

After 11 finals, Corinaldi surged to 86.5 points ahead of Black River Primary of St Elizabeth on 73.5 and Howard Cooke Primary of St James sitting in third spot on 54 points. Brompton Primary of St Elizabeth are fourth with 50 points while Glen Stuart Primary completed the top five on 48 points.

The records continued to tumble but the star of the day was Santana Brown of Brompton who won two events the Girls Cricketball Open with 42.04m and returned later to capture the high jump with a record leap of 1.37m.

Her teammate Keneek Grove won the Boys’ Cricket ball Open with a record 64.67m ahead of Corinaldi’s Al-Jay Levy with 63.50m.

Brompton won three events and took an early while Howard Cooke won three relays all in record fashion. In fact, seven of the eight relay records were broken.  

Howard Cooke won the Girls’ Class Four 4x100 in 1:02.49 and the Girls’ Class Two in 54.75, both in record fashion. They also won Boys’ Class One in 52.85 just outside the record of 52.19 held by Barracks Road since 2023.

Corinaldi Avenue won two relays in record style, the Boys’ Class Four in a record 58.05 and the Boys’ Class Three in 55.35.

Glen Stuart also won two relays in record fashion capturing the Girls’ Class Three 4x100 in 58.29 and the Boys’ Class Two in 55.25. Barracks Road Primary won the Girls Class One in a record 53.55.

There will be 29 finals tomorrow as teams fight to book their spots in the all-island finals dubbed the Nationals on May 20-22. Lyssons of St Thomas won the Eastern Championship and Naggo Head of St Catherine won the Central Championship.

The National champion will walk away with $600,000. Lyssons are the defending champions.

Usain Bolt took to social media on Thursday to mark a year since $12.7 million disappeared from his bank account under mysterious circumstances.

The Olympic legend had a horrible start to 2023 after discovering that his account, which he has never withdrawn or transferred money since 2012, was left with just $12,000. The account had $12.7 million as of October 31, 2022.

According to the sprinter’s lawyers, the money in the account with the Jamaican private investment firm Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL) was intended to serve as pension for the athlete and his family.

CBS at the time reported that Bolt was one of 30 people whose accounts had been wiped clean in an incident that had the FBI involved.

The eight-time Olympic gold medallist was made aware of the fraud when an ex-employee linked to the scheme alerted him on January 11, 2023.

According to multiple reports, the SSL fraud scheme totaled over $30 million, and at least 200 accounts were affected in January last year, including Bolt’s.

Taking to his social media on Thursday, a year since the incident, Bolt shared a message of resilience to his 13.8 million followers.

"Yow peeps, so it's been one year,” he stated.

"Just want unnu know seh mi still deh ya, still a fight the fight, still a hold on, always a go stay strong. Yuh know how the country yutes do it (Just want you to know I’m still here, fighting the fight and holding on. I’m trying to stay strong. To all the people that support me, continue your support. One love,” he added.

Bolt did not directly reference the SSL fraud, but based on the timing of his post, it was clear he was talking about the losses he made a year ago.

2022 NACAC 100m champion Ackeem Blake will clash with American World champion Christian Coleman and Canadian Olympic champion Andre De Grasse in the men’s 60m at the Millrose Games in New York on February 11.

The 21-year-old Blake had a mixed season in 2023. On one hand, he lowered his 100m personal best to 9.89 at the LA Grand Prix on May 27.

On the other hand, Blake disappointingly failed to secure an individual spot for Jamaica’s 100m team at the World Championships in Budapest after finishing fourth in the 100m final at Jamaica’s national championships in July. He went on to be a part of Jamaica’s bronze medal quartet in the men’s 4x100m in Budapest.

Blake’s 60m personal best, 6.42, was done last season at the National Stadium.

The USA’s Coleman, in addition to his 2019 World Outdoor 100m title, won the World Indoor 60m title in 2018 and was runner-up in 2022.

He is the current world record holder in the event with 6.34 done at the US Indoor Championships in 2018.

Canada’s De Grasse has won a number of medals at the global level, most notably winning 200m gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and being part of Canada’s gold medal 4x100m quartet at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene.

He has a 60m personal best of 6.60 done all the way back in 2015.

Also in the field will be the USA’s 2018 World Indoor bronze medallist Ronnie Baker, Japanese record-holed Abdul Hakim Sani Brown and Puerto Rican record-holder Miles Lewis.

Iconic Jamaican sprinter Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce brought some festive cheer to her community of Waterhouse with her second Christmas Treat of the month on Boxing Day and her 16^th overall.

Her first treat was held at the Windalco Sports Complex in Ewarton a week earlier.

On Boxing Day, children at the Fesco Field, children in the Waterhouse community were treated to a mixture of toys, rides, food and face painting to name a few.

Sponsors for the treat were Nike, Digicel Jamaica, Grace Foods, XLCR Jamaica and Toyota Jamaica Limited.

“The best Birthday gift I can ever receive is having a successful Treat each year,” said Fraser-Pryce who also celebrated her 37^th birthday on Wednesday.

“Nothing more, nothing less. Thank you to our amazing sponsors and volunteers,” added the three-time Olympic and 10-time World Champion.

Fraser-Pryce only competed in five 100m races in 2023 due to a nagging knee injury.

Despite those concerns, she was still able to perform when it counted with 100m bronze at the World Championships in Budapest in August.

Her time (10.77) was a season’s best in her last race of the season.

In a bid to foster a new era of athletic excellence across multiple sports, St. Lucia's Sports Minister Kenson Joel Casimir, has revealed the government's strategic investments in developing young talents on the island.

The success of notable athletes like Bowerman Award winner Julien Alfred, cricket icons Darren Sammy and Johnson Charles, and rising star sprinter Naomi London has ignited a wave of inspiration and paved the way for broader support for sports development.

Minister Casimir shared insights into the government's commitment to nurturing talent across various sports, including track and field, cricket, and football. The shift in paradigm also involves reimagining the island's inter-school track and field championships to enhance stakeholder engagement.

“We as a government, we've decided that we are going to take the added step of moving our inter-schools’ competition, that we have coined Island Champs, to a weekend event. And of course, we've been trying to get public buy-in, you know, parental support," the minister revealed in an exclusive interview with Sportsmax.TV

Explaining the rationale behind the change, he added, "We found that during the week in St Lucia, we've not been able to really get the amount of support that we want from the commercial sector, from parents, and from all walks of life and so we have rebranded our schools’ championship in track and field to ensure that the likes of a Julien (Alfred) or Naomi London could be on display for all of St Lucia to see, not just on television. (So), a Sunday event, a Sunday afternoon family event for St Lucians to see some of the next athletes that we are going to be exporting to the world."

Highlighting strides made in cricket, Minister Casimir revealed that plans to develop the next great cricketers from the island are well underway.

 “We have a high-performance centre that has been set up for cricket for the first time in our history where we've put 15 of our best male and female cricketers into a program where they are given nutritional support, they're given the best facilities to work with, the best coaches to work with."

The government has collaborated with the St Lucia Kings, a CPL franchise, to bring in coaches from India, contributing to the holistic development of cricket talent on the island.

Turning to football, Minister Casimir revealed exciting plans for grassroots development with renowned figures in the sport.

 “With the likes of Coach Stuart Charles-Fevrier and Earl ‘Ball Hog’ Jean, we're going to be seeing the launch of a grassroots development program in football," Minister Casimir revealed while highlighting the contributions of Stuart Charles and Earl Jean to St. Lucia's global representation and their involvement in an elite program for under-17 footballers.

The initiatives revealed by Minister Casimir reflect a broader vision to elevate sports in St. Lucia and create a lasting legacy of sporting excellence.

Stars from both ends of the experience spectrum are among those boasting gold medal hopes for Great Britain at next year’s Paris Olympics.

With one year to go to the Games, the PA news agency picks out five of the potentially biggest headline-grabbers.

Sky Brown

Aged just 13 when she won skateboard bronze in Tokyo in 2021, Brown is back and looking better than ever ahead of Paris, having scooped X Games and Dew Tour titles in 2022 and followed them up by being crowned women’s park world champion in Sharjah in February.

Jessica Gadirova

The precociously talented 18-year-old gymnast won world all-around gold in Liverpool last year and followed it up by winning this year’s European crown. Having been part of GB’s stunning bronze medal team triumph in Tokyo, Gadirova is well equipped to target her sport’s ultimate individual prize.

Keely Hodgkinson

Silver linings are no longer enough for the 800-metre star who was pipped by American rival Athing Mu at both the Tokyo Olympics and the subsequent World Championship. Gold at this year’s European Indoors in Istanbul will have whetted her appetite to go one better when her rivalry with Mu resumes in the French capital.

Carl Hester

After three straight Olympic medals in team dressage – including gold at London 2012 – 56-year-old Hester is targeting a fourth in what will be his final Games. Having missed last year’s team world silver in Denmark due to an injury to his horse, Hester will be determined to go out on a high.

Tom Dean

While Adam Peaty takes a well-deserved back seat, Dean has splashed into focus as he bids to better his historic haul from Tokyo 2020, at which he became the first British swimmer to claim more than one gold medal at a single Games in 113 years.

Nafi Thiam’s world indoor pentathlon record of 5055 from the European Indoor Championships and Jaydon Hibbert’s outright world U20 triple jump record from the NCAA Indoor Championships have been ratified.

Thiam produced one of the standout moments of the European Indoor Championships on 3 March to win her third European indoor title, putting together her best ever indoor series.

She opened by equalling her 8.23 PB in the 60m hurdles and followed it with a 1.92m clearance in the high jump, after which she moved into the lead. An outright shot put PB of 15.54m gave her a comfortable margin at the top of the leaderboard and she followed that with a 6.59m leap in the long jump, putting her on course to break the world record.

Poland’s Adrianna Sulek had also been having the competition of her life and was close to world record pace too heading into the 800m. Sulek dominated that race, crossing the line in 2:07.17, but Thiam also ran well, clocking an indoor PB of 2:13.60 to give her an overall winning tally of 5055. Sulek finished second with 5014.

Thiam’s score added 42 points to the previous world record of 5013, set by Ukraine’s Nataliya Dobrynska on 9 March 2012 at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul.

Sulek crossed the line before Thiam and so technically scored 5014 – higher than the pre-event world record – six seconds before Thiam finished the competition with 5055. But it is the position of World Athletics that only Thiam’s mark will be ratified.

Eight days after Thiam’s record-breaking feat, Jamaican triple jumper Jaydon Hibbert made history at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque on 11 March.

The world U20 champion bounded out to a winning leap of 17.54m in the first round of the men’s triple jump. Not only did he break the collegiate record that had stood since 1986, he also broke the world U20 indoor record of 17.20m – previously set by France’s Melvin Raffin in Belgrade on 3 March 2017 – and the outright world U20 record of 17.50m set by East Germany’s Volker Mai in Erfurt on 23 June 1985.

Two months after winning the NCAA indoor title, Hibbert sailed out to an outdoor PB of 17.87m at the SEC Championships in Baton Rouge. The mark has been submitted for ratification; if approved, that will stand as the outdoor world U20 record, while his 17.54m leap will remain at the world U20 indoor record.

While Norwegian standouts Karsten Warholm and Jakob Ingebrigtsen shone on home soil at the Oslo Diamond League, Jamaica’s athletes had somewhat of an off day, with Rushell Clayton’s second-place finish in the women’s 400m hurdles, being the best of the lot, at the Bislett Stadium on Thursday.

Warholm, clocked the fourth fastest 400m hurdles time in history, as he won in 46.52 seconds, after which his compatriot Ingebrigtsen, established a European men's 1,500m record of three minutes 27.95 seconds, much to the delight of the 15,000 supporters that turned out for the fifth stop on the Wanda Diamond League series.

Just before that, Jamaica’s in-form sprinter, Shericka Jackson, the third-fastest woman in the 100m this year at 10.78s, was beaten into third by Ivory Coast’s Marie Josee Ta Lou, in an event that wasn’t as close as was anticipated.

Ta Lou, who was the second-fastest athlete this year coming into the event, was comfortable in victory, as she clocked a meet record and world leading 10.75s in a positive 0.9 metres per second wind reading. She bettered the longstanding meet record of 10.82s set by Marion Jones in 1998, and the previous world lead of 10.76s set by American Sha’Carri Richardson, last month.

Bahamas Anthonique Strachan was second in a personal best 10.9s, while Jackson (10.98s) recovered from a slow start to take third ahead of the British pair of Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita, who were also clocked at 10.98s.

Clayton earlier ran a brave race for second in a season’s best 53.84s, behind impressive Dutchwoman, Femke Bol, who also clocked a meet record and world leading 52.30s for the 400m hurdles. Incidentally, the previous meet record of 52.61s was set by Bol last year, along with the previous world lead of 52.43s, which she clocked earlier this month.

Panama’s Gianna Woodruff, also with a season’s best 54.46, was third ahead of the other Jamaican Janieve Russell (54.91s). Russell’s time was also a season’s best. ‌

Jamaica’s national record holder Danniel Thomas-Dodd placed third in the women’s shot put event with a mark of 19.44m, which came on her second attempt. She finished behind Canadian Sara Mitton, who won with a throw of 19.54m, while American world leader, Maggie Ewan was second with 19.52m.

World Championships silver medalist Shanieka Ricketts was fourth in the women’s triple jump, after only managing a best of 14.33m, with Thea Lafond of Dominica, finishing fifth with a best leap of 14.21.

World and Olympic champion Yulimar Rojas, topped the event after cutting the sand at 14.91m, just shy of her world lead of 14.96. The Venezuelan won ahead of Cuba’s Leyanis Perez Hernandez, with a personal best 14.87m and Ukraine’s Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, who also achieved a season’s best 14.75m.

Another Jamaican Kimberly Williams did not start.

Former World Champion Tajay Gayle placed sixth on his Diamond League debut in the men’s long jump. Gayle’s best mark was 7.87m, as Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer (8.32m), American Marquis Dendy (8.26m) and Miltiadis Tentoglou (8.21m) of Greece, took the top three spots.

South African Wayde Van Niekerk continues to round into form, as he topped the men’s 400m in 44.38s, ahead of Zambia’s Muzala Samukonga (44.49s) and American Vernon Norwood, who clocked a season’s best 44.51s.

Meanwhile, there were also meet records for 19-year-old American Erriyon Knighton, who won the men's 200m in 19.77s to beat the mark previously held by sprint legend Usain Bolt.

Kenya's Beatrice Chebet won the women’s 3,000m in a world-leading 8:25.01, while a brilliant men's 5,000m race went down to the wire with Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha awarded victory over Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo in the fifth-fastest time in history (12:41:73).

Swedish star Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis took victory in the men's pole vault where he was the only athlete to clear 6.01 metres.

The next Diamond League event takes place in Lausanne, Switzerland on 30 June.

Such is the impressive form of triple jump sensation Jaydon Hibbert that he only required two attempts to win the event and end his freshman year of college undefeated.

In fact, it was on his very first jump that Hibbert cut the sand at the winning mark of 17.56m, in a negative 0.3 metres per second wind, on Friday's third and penultimate day of the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Austin, Texas.

Hibbert representing University of Arkansas followed that with another big leap of 17.38m, but later pulled out of his run up for a third and fourth attempts, as he suffered what appeared to be cramps or some discomfort in his right leg.

However, the damage was already done, as his initial mark which bettered the previous Facility Record of 17.13m and was just shy of the Meet Record of 17.57m, ensured that the former Kingston College stalwart added another accolade to his South-eastern Conference indoor and outdoor titles, as well as the NCAA indoor honours. The 18-year-old, also smashed a number of records, including the World Under-20 mark for indoor and outdoor, along the way.

Hibbert won ahead of University of Miami's Russell Robinson (16.94m) and Florida State senior, Jeremiah Davis (16.67m).

Owayne Owens (16.36m) of University of Virginia and Malik Cunningham (16.17m) of Villanova, were sixth and seventh, while Hibbert's Arkansas teammates Carey McLeod (15.99m), who won the long jump in a Jamaican sweep, and Ryan Brown (15.89m), finished 11th and 12th respectively.  Apalos Edwards of Louisiana State, did not turn up.

On the track, Phillip Lemonious of Arkansas capped his college career in style with victory in the men’s 110m hurdles to claim his first individual national title and in the process became the first Arkansas athlete to win the event since 2006.

Lemonious, who clocked a personal best 13.28 seconds in qualifying, lowered that time when he stopped the clock in 13.24s, running in a positive 1.8m/s wind. He maintained his composure over the 10 obstacles from a good break in lane five, to stave off the late challenge of De'Vion Wilson (13.26s) of Houston and Jaheem Hayles (13.28s) of Syracuse.

Giano Roberts of Clemson was fifth in 13.31s.

It was sweet redemption for the 24-year-old Lemonious, who endured a rough patch last season.

"To be honest, I try so hard. Last year took a toll on me and coming back this year was also hard battling injuries, but I just had to trust my coach, who told me that this is my championship to win so I went out there and got it," Lemonious said shortly after the race.

University of South Florida junior, Romaine Beckford, also showed good form on the night to win the men’s high jump and successfully complete the double, adding this outdoor championship to his indoor title. 

Beckford soared to a new personal best height of 2.27m on his way to victory, denying Oklahoma senior, Vernon Turner, who also cleared 2.27m, but had to settle for second on the count back. Roberto Vilches of Missouri was third with a season's best leap of 2.24m.

Former St George’s College student Zayne Palomino of Southern Mississippi finished down the pack after he only managed to clear 2.06m.

Elsewhere in the field, Roje Stona of the University of Arkansas, who placed 14th in the shot put, produced a stronger showing in the discus, placing second behind the vibrant Turner Washington of Arizona State.

Stona, launched the instrument to a big fourth round mark of 65.55m and seemed well on his way to the gold, before Washington snatched victory with his very last effort of 66.22m, a season’s best.

Former Petersfield standout Kevin Nedrick of Liberty University was fifth with a mark of 61.93m, while Stona's Arkansas teammate Ralford Mullings was 16th at 57.68m.

Meanwhile, Jevaughn Powell, finished seventh in the men’s 400m final in 45.32s, as his University of Florida teammates Emmanuel Bamidele and Ryan Willie both clocked personal best times of 44.24 and 44.25 in a close one-two finish. Emmanuel Bynum of Tennessee also clocked a personal best 44.49 for third.

Powell later joined forces with Bamidele, Jacory Patterson and Willie to clinch victory in the 4X400m relay, to retain the Men’s Team crown.

There were no signs of tired legs on display as all four athletes clocked blistering splits, with Powell on the third leg being clocked at 44.94s, passing to Willie, who closed in 44.28s to stop the clock in 2:57.74, a new Facility, Meet and Collegiate Record.

Arizona State (2:57.78) and UCLA (2:59.82) were second and third respectively.

The Mike Holloway-coached Gators tallied 57 points, four ahead of Arkansas, with Stanford (44 points) and Louisiana State University (43 points), placing third and fourth.

Keely Hodgkinson lowered her personal best and British record with a brilliant performance in the 800 metres at the Diamond League meeting in Paris.

Hodgkinson followed the pacemaker before striking for home 300m from the line, eventually clocking a time of one minute 55.77 seconds, taking 0.11secs off her previous best set in winning Olympic silver in Tokyo.

“I am a little bit shocked that I ran so fast,” the 21-year-old said. “Paris next year, I will definitely be back.

“The weather was really nice, so warm. I had heard good things about the track. With this full stadium and the great crowd, it was amazing. I am so happy.

“Now the aim is to stay healthy, we still have to see, I want to keep running fast. The focus is on the summer, on Budapest (the World Championships).

“What is next with such a fast time early in the season? Well, I do not know. Hopefully I will run even faster.”

Hodgkinson’s record-breaking run came just half an hour after Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen smashed the two-mile world record by more than four seconds.

Ingebrigtsen left the field trailing in his wake as he recorded a time of seven minutes, 54.10 seconds.

The previous mark was set by Daniel Komen in 1997, three years before Olympic 1,500 metre champion Ingebrigtsen was born.

Records continued to tumble as Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon set a new world’s best for the 5,000m, just a week after doing the same in the 1,500m in Florence.

Kipyegon produced a blistering last lap to pull away from Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey and clock a time of 14:05.20, taking almost a second and a half off Gidey’s previous mark.

The ideal conditions helped produce another world record in the penultimate event of the evening, Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma taking more than a second off the previous mark with a time of 7:52.11 in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase.

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.

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.

St. Lucian senior Julien Alfred and Jamaican junior Kevona Davis were part of the Texas quartet that set the Mike A. Myers Stadium track on fire on their way to setting a new collegiate record at the 2023 Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on Saturday.

Alfred, the 2023 NCAA Indoor 60m and 200m champion and record holder, ran the opening leg for the Longhorns before passing to Ezinne Abba who then passed to Lanae Thomas before Davis anchored the team to a time of 42.00, breaking the previous collegiate record 42.05 set by LSU in 2018.

Earlier in the day, Alfred, Davis and Thomas combined with Rhasidat Adeleke to set a new collegiate record 1:28.05 in the 4x200.

On Friday, Alfred was also a part of the quartet that set a collegiate record in the sprint medley.

The 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist split 22.4 in the first 200m leg of the relay and combined with Rhasidat Adeleke, Kennedy Simon and Valery Tobias to run 3:36.10 and break the previous record 3:38.93 set at last year’s Texas relays by Texas A&M.

Individually, Jamaican Ashanti Moore ran 11.23 for second in the Women’s Invitational 100m behind Olympic 200m bronze medallist Gabby Thomas (11.09) while Lynna Irby-Jackson was third in 11.31.