Photo: 21-year old University of Arkansas athlete, Clive Pullen celebrates after winning the National Senior Championships gold medal in the Triple Jump on Thursday. Pullen’s personal best of 16.90m earned him a spot on the Olympic team to Rio.
21-year old University of Arkansas athlete, Clive Pullen, unleashed an new personal best Triple jump mark of 16.90m to win the National Senior Championships gold and edged his way into this Summer’s Olympic Games in Rio Brazil in August.
The NCAA star stood on the end of the triple jump runway, rhythmically clapping, while the fans obliged and clapped along with him and when the beat was just right he leaned his imposing frame forward on the strip of polyurethane. Hop, skip, jump and an explosion of sand and the reaction thereafter, one of great jubilation after the white flag was waved, said it all. It was sweet relief for his disappointment of fouling out at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Speaking with Yardie Sports after his victory, Pullen said, “The moment I hit the sand I knew I had done it. I had placed the orange cone as a marker for the 17m mark so I knew.”
Pullen who is the reigning NCAA Indoor champion, exceeded the Olympic qualifying standard on his final jump. His previous best was 16.74m to win at the SEC Outdoor Championships this year. Second spot went to Damon Mclean with a leap of 16.64m and third went to Wilbert Walker with a mark of 16.42m.
The other final contested on the opening day, the Men’s Javelin, went to former national record holder Orlando Thomas of the University of Technology.The distance of 69.98m thrown by Thomas was enough for gold but not enough to secure a spot on the plane to Rio. Second went to Zaavan Richards of the UWI with 64.02m and third went to Adrian Mitchell of Calabr with 63.94m.
The main protagonists on the 100m on both the men’s and women’s side advanced to Friday’s semifinals, including defending champions Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake.
Leading women’s 400m hurdler Janieve Russell was noticably absent during Thursday’s first round.
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