National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) men’s 400m finalists JeVaughn Powell and Raheem Hayles, both of University of Florida, have been named in a six-man Jamaica team to make a last-ditch effort to help the country qualify for the Olympic Games.

The Jamaicans are down to compete at the NACAC New Life Invitational to be held in Nassau, Bahamas, on Sunday.

Powell, who was third in the men’s 400m final at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoors Championships held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, last week, and Hayles, who was seventh, were named by the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) on Wednesday. They are joined by 800m specialists Tarees Rhoden and Kimar Farquharson, sprinter Shevoi Reid, and 400m hurdles specialist Malik James-King.

After failing to qualify at the World Athletics Relay Championships that was held in The Bahamas in May and falling outside the quota, Jamaica has one final chance to qualify for the Olympics. They must run faster than 2:59.12 minutes by the June 30 cut-off date to get at least the 16th and final spot at the Olympics.

Zambia holds the 16th spot, while France occupies the other ‘quota’ spot with 2:58.45.

The Jamaicans are ranked 17th in the qualifying ranking with the 2:59.34 they ran in the final of the World Athletics Championships last year in Budapest, Hungary.

Fourteen teams qualified directly from the World Relays in The Bahamas where Jamaica missed two chances to book spots which went to teams that placed in the top two in two rounds of qualification.

Jamaica just missed qualification in the first round when they were third in their heat in 3:02.46 behind Belgium (3:00.09) and Nigeria (3:01.70). Jamaica then placed fifth in the second-round race in 3:05.09.

Powell was part of the Jamaican team that won its heat in the first round of the men’s 4x400m relays at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, but was one of two runners replaced in the final as the team placed fourth.

Powell ran a personal best 44.54 seconds in the men’s 400m final at the NCAA Championships and was joined by Hayles on the University of Florida men’s 4x400m team that placed third in 2:58.98.

Hayles, who ran 45.78 seconds in the 400m final, has a personal best 44.81 seconds set last year. Farquharson, who was seventh in the men’s 800m, split 44.38 seconds on the third leg of the Texas A&M University team that won the 4x400m relay in a Championship record 2:58.37.

Rhoden, who was fourth in the 800m after leading most of the race in a personal best 1:45.70, was part of the Clemson University 4x400m team that was second at the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Outdoor championships. He has a personal best 45.60 in the 400m set last year.

Former Calabar High runner Reid, the 200m programme record holder at the University of South Florida, has a 400m personal best of 45.96 set last year. He has a season’s best 46.48 and was part of his school’s 4x400m team that qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Squad — Tarees Rhoden, Kimar Farquharson, Shevoi Reid, JeVaughn Powell, Malik James-King, Raheem Hayles.