Former St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) runner Leonardo Ledgister of Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) achieved the Olympic qualifying standard in the men’s 400m hurdles after he ran a personal best 48.79 seconds to place second at the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) West Regionals at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, yesterday.

Ledgister, who was a finalist at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Finland in 2018, was breaking his school record for the third time this season as he dipped under the 48.90 seconds Olympic Games standard.

He is the second Jamaican man to achieve the Olympic standard, ironically, joining former STETHS and TAMU-CC runner Kemar Mowatt, whose record he had broken earlier this year.

The men’s 400m hurdles final was originally scheduled to be run on Friday afternoon but almost the entire schedule was rained out and rescheduled for yesterday.

Ledgister, who also set a new Southland Conference Outdoor Championships record two weeks ago, joins approximately 20 other Jamaicans who had qualified for the NCAA Division One track and field outdoors championships set for the University of Oregon next month.

Up to yesterday midway the final sessions of both the East and West Regionals, four Jamaicans had qualified in two individual events — Gabrielle Bailey of Kent State in the shot put and discus throw from the East; Clayton Brown of the University of Florida in the men’s high and triple jump; Carey McLeod of the University of Tennessee in the men’s long and triple jumps, and O’Brien Wasom of the University of Texas, also in the men’s long and triple jumps.

Clemson University’s Roje Stone was fourth in the East Region’s men’s discus throw with a best mark of 60.73m and Phillipe Barnett of the University of Minnesota was third in the West Region’s men’s discus throw with 58.48m.

Six Jamaican men will line up in the men’s triple jump at the national championships, three from either region as Tennessee’ McLeod with 16.24m (1.7m/s), Virginia’s Owayne Owens with 16.03m (2.3m/s) and Florida’s Brown with 15.94m (0.6m/s) qualified from the East.

Jordan Scott of the University of Southern California was second in the West Region with 16.52m (1.3m/s), Wasome was fourth with 16.41m (0.9m/s) while Texas Tech’s Safin Wills was eighth with a wind-aided 16.08m (3.8m/s).

Clemson’s LaFranz Campbell with 13.53 (2.2) and Louisiana State’s Damion Thomas with 13.60 (1.7m/s) have both qualified from the East in the 110m hurdles, while Phillip Lemonious of Arkansas lowered his personal best once again to 13.44 seconds (1.1m/s) to finish second in the West Region.

Shanice Low of Florida State won the East Region women’s discus throw with a season’s best 61.22m, while Kent State’s Bailey was sixth with 56.22m.

Sean Bailey of the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) was third in the West Region’s men’s 400m in 45.31 seconds, while the University of Iowa’s Wayne Lawrence was fifth in 45.49 seconds.

Lamara Distin of Texas A&M University qualified in the women’s high jump with 1.82m which tied her for first place in the West region.

Both Leon Clarke of Mississippi State and Ackeen Colley of Western Illinois were unlucky in the men’s 800m in the East and West regions after both finished midpack in their heats which were amongst the quickest.

Clark ran one minute 49.7 seconds and was 13th overall in the East with the top 12 qualifying, while Colley’s time of 1:48.87 minutes was the ninth fastest overall but he was seventh in his heat and was passed by runners who were top three in their slower heats but got automatic qualifying spots.