Jamaica will have three representatives in the men’s discus throw at a second consecutive Olympic Games after Roje Stona achieved the qualifying mark on Sunday when he finished second at the Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational with a personal best 69.05m.

Stona improved on his previous personal best 68.64m set in May last year that qualified him for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary and joins Ralford Mullings (69.89m) and Traves Smikle (67.83m) as Jamaican men who have gone over the automatic qualifying distance of 67.20m for the Paris Olympics this summer.

Three years ago at the Tokyo Games, Jamaica was represented by Fedric Dacres, Smikle and Chad Wright. Smikle and Jason Morgan flew the flag at the London Games in 2012.

On Sunday, Stona got the mark in the first round and finished behind Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna who broke the oldest men’s world record with 74.14m, beating the 38-year-old world record 74.08m set by Jurgen Schult of the then German Democratic Republic. With the feat, Alekna also took over the world lead from Mullings.

Mullings finished 10th with 65.29m and Wright, who had a season best 65.00m, was 11th overall.

Also on Sunday, Jamaica’s World Championships representative Nayoka Clunis opened her hammer throw season with 67.14m for third place behind Erin Reese (69.59m) and Stamatia Scarvelis (68.31m).

-Paul A Reid