TWO-TIME World Athletics Indoor Championships triple jump finalist Jordan Scott went into Sunday’s Coqui International Cup, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meet in Puerto Rico, to test where he is in terms of being competition-ready as the outdoor seasons revs up.

After a couple of jumps at the event held in a park outside of the stadium with an elevated runway, he established his readiness with a personal best and world-leading 17.66m (0.0m/s) jump.

His effort bettered his previous best of 17.52m set during a Diamond League meet last year.

“We never really went into the meet with any real expectations. We had an idea of where we were because we competed at Penn Relays a couple weeks ago — from a short approach, in the cold — and we jumped 17.23 from behind the board so we knew we’re in a good spot,” Scott, the former NCAA indoor champion at the University of Virginia, told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

“This was the first meet this year that I jumped from a full approach so we knew there was a lot that we needed to iron out.

“We weren’t sure if it was going to go as smoothly as we wanted to — in all honesty, it wasn’t as smooth as we wanted it to be. But, I mean, we were able to get a good job out there, and opted to shut it down to kind of just save ourselves for upcoming meets,” added the Jamaican who turns 29 next month.

Scott had shown lots of promise in high school when he competed for Campion College, before moving to the United States where he competed for the University of Virginia and also spent one year at the University of Southern California.

After being under the radar for a few years he grabbed some headlines last season when he finished fourth at the World Indoor Championships in China. He then won three Diamond League events before ending the season with a fifth-place finish at the World Athletics Championships in Japan.

This year he went further when he took silver at the World Indoors in Poland — the first time a Jamaican man had ever won a medal at the championships.

“I think changing my mindset towards the sport [is part of what led to that success] but I think that changing mindset is propelled by that change in camp as well,” said Scott who is now based in Maryland where he trains with Olympic Games women’s triple jump gold medallist Thea LaFond of Dominica. LaFond’s husband, Aaron Gadson, is the coach.

Training with LaFond, he says, has helped to rekindle his love for the sport.

“It’s amazing to be training with the best of the best. I mean, I feel like I have one of, if not the best, trainng partner in Thea LaFond.”

He pointed to her rise to win the Olympic gold medal, which shocked many.

“She’s been at the bottom of the bottle, and she’s been at the top of the top, so she knows what it takes to get there. And, I mean, I am just following her footsteps to ensure that I’m doing everything, everything to the best of my ability, and making the right decisions to be successful.”

Scott says he is still far from where he wants to be but is willing to trust the process.

“I think we’re still in the process of figuring things out so, I mean, I say it can only get better but I mean I actually believe it can only be better.”

The Commonwealth Games, to be held in Scotland this summer, is Scott’s major target for the season.

“The plan, obviously, is to medal at the Commonwealth Games,” he said.

Before that, the national champion is set to compete at the JBL Jump Fest on May 26, an event held in the streets of Košice in Slovakia in temporary pits set up for the event. He is also slated to compete at the Rome Diamond League on June 4.