National discus thrower Traves Smikle says setting the Olympic Games qualifying mark on his seasonal debut sets him up for better preparation.

Smikle threw a world leading-67.57m over the Olympic Games qualifying mark of 67.20m to win the men’s discus throw at the King of the Ring throws meet at Excelsior High School in Kingston on Saturday.

Lamara Distin also qualified for the Olympic Games on Saturday by winning the women’s high jump invitational at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational with a personal best equalling 1.97m, the exact mark for the Games in Paris, France, this summer.

Smikle got his mark almost a year to the day at the same meet when he threw his personal best 68.14m last year to qualify for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

“This was the goal going into the meet,” he told the
Jamaica Observer on Sunday, “I was competition rusty, but I think my condition is decent and I opened with a 67.00m throw, which was short of the qualifying mark, but I ended with 67.57m, which is the qualifier.”

Smikle says getting the mark so early in the season makes his path to the National Championships and the Olympic Gamessmoother.

“As you know, the senior season is long,” he said. “We tend to start early, but obviously, background work is important, so getting this mark now, it is just to help us to prepare for later down in the year.

“Obviously, there are target competitions before the national trials and then the Olympics. We’re aiming to perform well in those as well, but now that the qualifying mark is out of the way, I can focus on everything else that needs to be achieved.”

Distin, a senior at Texas A&M University who is aiming at three straight NCAA women’s indoors high jump titles next month, equalled her personal best and national record, breaking the meet record 1.91m set in 2019 by St Lucia’s Lavern Spencer.

She started at 1.80m, cleared 1.91m on the second try, then cleared 1.97m on her third attempt but failed at 2.00m to be third ranked in the world behind reigning World Champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh of the Ukraine (2.04m) and Nicola Olyslagers of Australia (2.03m).