Former decathlon athlete Adrian Riley will be hoping to make his mark in the long jump event, despite stiff competition from a plethora of talented Jamaicans.

The former Calabar High star, who broke the Champs decathlon record in 2013 and went on to a successful stint at the University of Texas, San Antonio, has decided to focus strictly on the long jump.

The 26-year-old Riley completed his decorated university career in 2018 as a second-team All-American at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the gruelling decathlon event.

But with a best of 7.74m in the long jump, Riley knows his task of booking a spot on Jamaica’s team to the Olympic Games will be an arduous one, but he is not perturbed.

Riley will be competing with the likes of World Championships gold medallist Tajay Gayle, the 2018 CAC Games champion Ramon Bailey, in-form Carey McLeod, Damar Forbes, Ramon Bailey, OBrian Waysome, Wayne Pinnock, Shawn D Thompson, and Shakwon Coke.

“I am very aware of that [competition] which also helps with the development of the event as well [and that’s] very good,” Riley told the Jamaica Observer.

“The more the competition is the better for the product that we showing out there in the pit,” he added.

Riley, who also earned second-team All-Conference USA honours in the decathlon in the 2018, represented Jamaica at the 2019 Pan American Games and placed eight in the long jump with a leap of 7.57m.

The former Calabar High captain, who is the younger brother to 2014 Commonwealth Games 110m hurdles champion Andrew Riley, is now training with the Ricketts Performance Centre with renown horizontal jumps Coach Kerry-Lee Ricketts.

“Training has been going good so far. I have been working on a lot of technical stuff as well as a lot of speed so far,” revealed Riley, who has a 100m best of 10.82.

“A lot of stuff that I didn’t know he has brought to my attention which has been really helpful as it regards to jumping as well as speed development,” said Riley.

He continued: “It’s been great working with him. I have known him for eight to nine years now and to finally get that opportunity to work with him has been a blessing and I cherish that.”

Riley opened his season with 7.74m (2.2 mps) and was second behind Jamaica’s world champion Tajay Gayle who leapt 8.03m on February 27.

He returned on March 13 and jumped 7.30m and again was behind Gayle who won with 7.77m. Riley’s training partner Damon Williams of Guyana was second with 7.38m.

Riley with his personal best of 7.74m need to jump 8.22m to make the Olympic Qualifying mark, then try and make the Jamaican team.

“First and foremost I would like to get the standard. I am just looking forward to competing and getting healthy and all that,” said Riley.

— Howard Walker