Ackera Nugent, one of the island’s best-ever junior female sprint hurdlers, says she has no regrets over attempting the brutal 100m hurdles/100m double at the NCAA Division One Championships and has not ruled out making another attempt at it again next year.

Nugent, who just completed a wildly successful first year at Baylor University, raised eyebrows and set tongues wagging after she competed in the events at both the NCAA West Regional Championships at Texas A&M University and at the NCAA Division One Championships at the University of Oregon, two weeks apart.

Both events are scheduled less than 15 minutes apart, and to qualify for the NCAA Championships, athletes must run the events twice at the ‘Regionals’ and finish in the top 12.

Opinions ranged from her being “abused” by the college system to suggestions that she should transfer, but when asked by the Jamaica Observer if she had any regrets, the former Excelsior High star said: “If you have regrets in life you limit your potential.”

Nugent, who holds the World Best in the Under-18 100m hurdles with a time of 12.89 seconds and is the fourth best ever in the Under-20 age group with a personal best of 12.76 seconds, tells why she considred the double.

“Well, I like running the 100m, and to be honest, me running the 100m this season was to see where I am right now and I would be maybe the first person at my age to achieve this and do okay at it,” she said.

Nugent, however, admitted that “it’s not easy, but I just need to get a little stronger and I think I can accomplish this task”.

Nugent was almost an instant hit as she won the NCAA Indoor 60m hurdles and set the Baylor programme record of 7.91 seconds and has three of the top five times ever at the Waco, Texas school.

In the outdoor, her 11.09 seconds in the 100m ties the school record and her 12.76 seconds in the 100m hurdles is the second best all times, but she said she was not surprised by her accomplishments.

“There is no surprise if you believed in yourself and your potential.”

Nugent led the West Regional in the 100m hurdles with her 12.86 seconds in the second round and was third overall in the 100m in 11.15 seconds, all inside 20 minutes, after she had run 11.09 seconds two days earlier.

At the outdoor nationals she took third in the hurdles event and 10 minutes later she was ninth in the 100m, as her hectic schedule caught up with her.

The track and field might have been the easy part.

“Leaving home and the people I care about was the hardest part, but with the type of person I am, I’m willing to make adjustments and the transition wasn’t hard for me,” noted Nugent.

She said she was pleased with her first year and what she was able to accomplish “I’m very satisfied with both indoors and outdoors because as a freshman I was able to stand up and compete along side some older athletes with great talent and that gave me motivation and helped to build my confidence and motivation,” Nugent said.

With respect to her mixed results in indoor and outdoor seasons, Nugent was philosophical in her response.

“It’s not about where I placed in the outdoors, for me it’s just going out there to have fun and see my outcome, and that is how it has been since I’ve gotten here,” she ended.