AS the NCAA Division One Outdoor Championship gets under way today at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, University of Texas freshman Keiron Stewart, a Kingston College past student, has become a rising star in Jamaican sprint hurdling.

With personal bests in the 60m hurdles and 110m hurdles this season, the 20-year-old Stewart is eager to carve a niche into an event that has made Keith Gardner, Godfrey Murray, and Maurice Wignall world-beaters.

“The season has been good so far, maybe not the best due to injuries, but I’m still making progress so I can’t complain,” he said in an interview.

“I’ve gotten to a point where I am working on the little things in my race. We’re out of school now, so I’ve been able to really focus on training and we’ve had some good sessions lately, so I’m excited to see what happens this weekend.”

Bronze medallist at the Big 12 Championships in mid-May, Stewart ran a personal best 13.61 seconds to move up to number eight on this season’s NCAA list. However, his wind-aided (2.9 m/s) 13.39 seconds at the NCAA West Preliminary Championships last week in Austin, Texas, has increased his odds.

“I think it has a lot to do with the great training facilities at Texas and the proper coaching and management I’ve received while I’ve been here. Coach Bubba (Thornton) did not pressure me to do multiple events and took precautions when needed. I think that’s why I’ve been in such good form,” he pointed out.

Stewart ran a personal best 7.85 seconds in the 60m hurdles in February, when he placed fourth at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in Ames, Iowa.

Majoring in communications, Stewart chose the Longhorns after visiting and loving the facilities.

“The university is well-known for its academics, so that’s the first thing that caught my interest. The programme is great, I have been running well and looking to build on it. I’m only a freshman and I think I’ve performed above my expectations, so I’m very pleased,” said Stewart, who set the national junior record in 2007 when he clocked 13.49 seconds for silver at the Carifta Games in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands.

Coach Thornton, meanwhile, believes that Stewart has a shot of breaking the University of Texas school record of 13.50 seconds this weekend.

“Honestly, the way he ran last week at the NCAA (West) prelims, he would have broken it with or without the wind. I’ve timed him a bunch of times in practice and he’s been under that 13.50 mark regularly, so I definitely think he’s capable of doing that… But this weekend is about beating people not necessarily times,” he added.

The four-day NCAA Outdoor Championship will end on Saturday.

“I’ve been really pleased with how Keiron’s come along. I’ve coached a lot of special athletes in my 28 years and he ranks right up there. We”ve still got a lot of work to do, but you can see the talent is there. Now, he’s just got to learn how to focus in training, learn what it takes to stay healthy and do the little things that the talented guys go from being just good to great.

“Since it’s his first year, we decided that we wanted him to focus on one event, the 110m hurdles. We even took him off his 4x100m leg because we wanted to give him every opportunity at success in that event during his first year, and he’s made the most of it. But we think he’s capable of so much more,” he emphasised.

Stewart hopes to join Greg Williams in 1991 and Robert Foster in 1994 as NCAA Division One 110m hurdles champions.