Pullen tipped for NCAA title

Clive Pullen has been picked to win the triple jump at next week's NCAA Division One Championships.

Pullen, the former Kingston College star, is one of 13 Jamaicans who will seek individual titles at the four-day United States collegiate meet starting on June 8 in Eugene, Oregon.

Kimberly Williamson, formerly of Edwin Allen High, and Kellion Knibb, formerly of St Jago High School, have also been tapped for top three finishes.

The predictions appear in a comprehensive preview by respected US publication Track And Field News.

Pullen, the NCAA Indoor champion, left Kingston College in 2013 with a personal best of 15.92 metres and a Boys and Girls' Championships jump of 15.83 metres. On May 14 this year, the 21-year-old bounded to a new lifetime mark of 16.78m competing for the University of Arkansas.

He will not only be seeking to win the NCAA outdoor title, but hopes to match, or exceed, the Olympic qualifying distance of 16.85m.

If Pullen does succeed, he would be the first Jamaican to win the NCAA men's triple jump since Lennox Burgher in 1968.

Now at Kansas State, Williamson has been cited as the high jump runner-up, while Penn Relays discus champion Knibb, now at Florida State, is picked for third.

The other Jamaicans in the hunt for individual glory in Eugene will be Senoj-Jay Givans and Edward Clarke Jr in the 100m for the University of Texas and Florida State University, respectively. Williamson's high-jumping Kansas State colleague Christoff Bryan; thrower Daina Levy, who is at Kansas; 400m runners Chris-Ann Gordon, Sonikqua Walker, and Fitzroy Dunkley for Texas, Ohio State and Louisiana State, respectively The University of Georgia pair of shot put ace Ashinia Miller and long jumper Chanice Porter; Shadae Lawrence of Kansas State in the discus; and 110m hurdler Yannick Hart, who studies at the University of Florida.