Jamaica’s discus thrower Tarasue Barnett has made the qualifying distance for this August’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after throwing a personal best 61.28m at the Steve Scott Invitational in Irvine, California, on Saturday.

The former Edwin Allen High and GC Foster representative, who also held the national junior record, was representing Grand Canyon University and surpassed the 61.00m mark for qualification.

Barnett is quoted to have said of making the Olympic Games qualifying mark: “It was the best day of my life as I made the Olympic Games qualification mark.”

Another Jamaican, Sasha-Gaye Marston, also representing Grand Canyon, was sixth with 49.83m.

The throw ranked Barnett 17th in the world on the IAAF performance list, ahead of Kellion Knibb, who broke the Penn Relays College women’s championships record after throwing 58.5m to win the event on Friday.

Knibb, another former national junior record holder, who was representing Florida State University, broke the mark of 57.76m set 20 years ago in 1996 by the University of Washington’s Aretha Hill.

If Barnett makes it to Rio, she would be the second woman to represent Jamaica in the event after Allison Randall, who threw 58.06m and finished 29th overall four years ago in London.

On Saturday, she had an impressive series, with all her throws over the 57.45m mark and was over the 60.00m mark twice to beat Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s Lally Jade with 59.59m and Brazil’s Fernanda Martins with 59.28m.