Fresh from Thursday’s sensational final round win in the women’s long jump, Jamaica’s Ackelia Smith of the University of Texas will be seeking the double when she competes in the triple jump final at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor national championships at the Mike A Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas.

Smith, who won the long/triple jump double at the Big12 outdoors last month, produced a 6.88m effort on her final jump on Thursday to win the event after she was on the verge of fouling out, after fouling her first two efforts.

She will be one of several Jamaicans who will be seeking titles for their respective universities as Lamara Distin will seek to end her college career with a fourth straight NCAA women’s high jump title, back- to -back outdoors to match her two indoor titles.

Distin has one of the most distinguished NCAA records in the event and has broken a series of records including both Jamaican records, indoors and outdoors.

Two other Jamaicans will also contest the high jump- Daniella Anglin of the University of South Dakota and Roschell Clayton of Villanova.

Smith, who represented Jamaica in both the long and triple jumps at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games, will have tough competition in the triple jump from Florida’s Jasmine Moore, Ruta Lasmane of Texas Tech and Georgia’s Mikeisha Welcome, all of who have gone over 14.00m this season.

A second Jamaican, Rhianna Phipps of the University of Nebraska, will also take part in the triple jump.

Kevona Davis of the University of Texas will line up in both the 100m and 200m finals, while Ackera Nugent of the University of Arkansas qualified for Saturday’s 100m hurdles final and her teammate Nickisha Pryce, also advanced in the 400m.

– Paul A Reid