DIRECTOR of Sports at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Dalton Myers is pleased with the latest group of sport scholarship students which he said is the most talented the tertiary institution has admitted since the programme began four years ago.

The pool includes former Kingston College 110m hurdles standout and Carifta Championships silver medallist Stefan Fennell, national discus record holder Traves Smikle, and former Edwin Allen high jumper and Carifta and Penn Relays champion Kimberley Williamson.

“Before, we had talented guys; but this year has been great. They have been doing great,” Myers told the Jamaica Observer.

The previous batch of scholarship recipients includes London Olympic Games 110m hurdles bronze medallist Hansle Parchment and World University Games 200m silver medallist Jason Young, who were admitted during the second year of the programme.

Myers said the institution aims to prepare its athletes for competition at the national level.

“We measure our success by the number of athletes we can get to represent the country. That is really our measure of success as opposed to winning a track meet or an Intercol. We want them in the national programme.”

He said that Parchment and Young were among a group that made an easier transition to national representation.

Parchment won a gold medal at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China, in 2011, a year before winning a surprise medal in London, and Myers said that the effect of the Fitz Coleman-trained athlete was more than UWI could have wished.

“What he has done we could never ever pay for that. He really put us on the track and field map, for want of a better word, in terms of what he has done at the national level and that has assisted in getting some of the younger guys coming into the programme,” he said.

The scholarship recipients are pursuing degrees in several areas, including marketing, physiotherapy, psychology, accounts, business, and international relations.

The university does not have a financial ceiling on programmes that student athletes are accepted into, although Myers did explain that medical students and law students tend to have a challenge balancing both their training and education programmes.

“We want to accommodate as many athletes as we possibly can and once they matriculate we don’t want to discriminate. If we think that athlete can contribute to the country and to the development we are willing to work with that athlete,” he stated.