MONCTON, Canada — Sunday afternoon on the final day of the 13th IAAF World Junior Championships (WJC) in Moncton, Canada, Jamaica's Kamal Fuller sat in the stands watching the final of the men's 110m hurdles with a rueful smile on his face. What was he thinking?

"I should have been in that race" he told the Observer, "It was just unfortunate that I hit the first hurdle in the semi-finals".

The former Wolmer's Boys' athlete, who is heading to the University of Alabama this September, said that while he fell at the first hurdle and did not get into the top eight of the long jump, the WJC experience was the highlight of his season.

"The highlight of the season for me must be in the first round of the long jump when I jumped (a personal best) 7.73m," he said.

Fuller, who came into the Championships with a personal best of 7.63m, had just fouled on his first attempt before uncorking his big jump to secure an automatic qualification to the final. "People watch the first jump which was a foul, but saw that I had the potential to go even farther."

Fuller eventually placed ninth in the final, but said he did his best and was satisfied.

Come September he hopes to start the next phase of his life and chose the University of Alabama because he thinks "the coaching staff and all-round academics programme" can benefit him very well.

Fuller, who was making his fourth Jamaican junior track and field team and was one of a handful of athletes competing in two events, said he will pursue a degree in civil engineering, "that's what I always wanted to do, I like engineering".

True to his calling, Fuller has already mapped out his immediate future, saying the first order of business when he gets to Tuscaloosa where the school is located, will be to make certain his grades are up to scratch then to ease his way into track and field.

"I don't want to push too hard at first," he said, "just to make sure I do everything just right".

As for his targets, Fuller hopes to get over the 8.00m mark and in two years be consistently jumping over 8.20m in the long jump and also to adjust to the Olympic height in the sprint hurdles.

Once he adjusts, he says, then the target for times will be sub-14 seconds.

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