TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Natasha Ruddock, the 2005 World Youth Championships silver medallist, has become the first Jamaican this season to make the provisional list for the March 12-13 NCAA Division One Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The St Jago High past student, who left Essex County College as a star performer to join Texas A&M this season as junior, clocked 8.42 seconds at high altitude to win her race last month at the Texas A&M Reveille Invitational at College Station, located in Central Texas.

Ruddock, who won both the 55m hurdles indoor and 100m hurdles outdoor in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Championships last season, will need to run 8.14 seconds to become an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Indoors.

Virtually unbeaten in the sprint hurdles last season as a sophomore for Essex County, Ruddock, who also ran the 55m and 60m dash indoors, and the 100m outdoors, and once the 500 metres and 400m hurdles for strength training.

An early bloomer in speed and size, Ruddock had a dream year in her pet event the 100m hurdles in 2005 when she became the Carifta Games Under-17 champion, and silver medallists at the Pan American Junior Championships and the World Youth Championships.

She posted all her personal best times in the last two years, quietly breaking the National Junior Indoor Record in the 60m hurdles in a time of 8.13 seconds on February 8 last year in New York.

On her successful NCAA debut at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium, Ruddock said: “I am excited for the win, the track is very nice. I am so happy that I chose this school, the facilities are great and this is a good environment for me.

“I believe I am doing much better, running 8.42 is a good opener. There are still things I need to improve on, like my start. I hit the first hurdle a little bit, but it was a good race overall,” she added.

Ruddock averages 8.22 seconds in the 60m hurdles, while in the 100m hurdles she clocked a personal best 13.15 seconds on May 22 last year in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Gillian Russell was the first Jamaican woman to have won the 60m hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Representing the University of Miami, she won the event in 1995 and since then Dionne Rose and Vonette Dixon also claimed the title.