Three Jamaicans — Carey McLeod, Ryan Brown and Rene Medley — have been shortlisted by the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for Athlete of the Year honours, in the Men’s Division One and Women’s Division Two Indoors seasons, respectively.

The announcements were made last week shortly after the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) indoors season was cut short, just before the nationals for both divisions one and two and all sports for the remainder of the year were called off as a result of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

McLeod, who won the Class One long and triple jump double in 2017 after transferring to Kingston College, and who is a sophomore at the University of Tennessee, is one of three men listed. He joins the University of Kansas’ thrower Gleb Dudarev and the University of South Dakota’s pole vaulter Chris Nilsen for the Men’s Division One field events award.

Former Vere Technical High School sprinter Medley, who now attends the University of Lincoln in Missouri, is in the running for the Division Two Woman Track Athlete of the Year award.

Ida Narbuvoll of the University of Mary and Nicole Sreenan of Grand Valley State were the other nominees.

Brown, who is a teammate of Medley, has been nominated for the men’s Division Two Field Athlete of the Year award.

McLeod, who competed for Emporia State in the NCAA Division Two last year, produced a personal best 8.19m to win the long jump at the South Eastern Conference (SEC) in February and was named the SEC Men’s Field Athlete of the Year.

His mark saw him move into the number 17 position on the NCAA all-time list, up from number 25, and it was a University of Tennessee programme record and the facility record for the Texas A&M University indoors arena.

He was also second in the triple jump with 16.59m.

Medley, who also attended Western Texas College before moving to Lincoln where Jamaican Harold Thomas is the head coach, finished the indoors season with the top times “in NCAA Division II in both the 60m and the 200m, after winning both events at the MIAA Championships. Medley took the 60m in 7.37 seconds and won the 200m in 23.57 seconds, with both times being automatic qualifiers”, according to the Lincoln University track and field website.

Brown, who also attended G C Foster College of Sports, “ended the 2019-20 season leading NCAA Division Two in both the long jump and the triple jump, posting automatic qualifying distances in each event. Brown’s distance of 7.77m, set at the Hoosier Open, leads the nation in the long jump. In the triple jump his distance of 15.87m, also set at the Hoosier Open, tops the country” and won the competition, while taking third in the long jump at the MIAA Indoor Track & Field Championships.