Nayoka Clunis, on the verge of making the Jamaica team to a major global event for the first time, is giddy with anticipation as the clock ticks to the end of July when the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) submits its list to the World Athletics Championships to be held in Budapest, Hungary, in mid-August.

The former Excelsior High, University of Minnesota and University of Tennessee thrower has done her part after throwing a personal best 71.13m. She is ranked 36th in the world and won her fourth national championships on Sunday’s final day of the JAAA athletics championships at the National Stadium.

While Clunis’ mark is still over two metres short of the 73.60m qualifying distance for the World Championships, she is 30th in the World Ranking Quota and has a great shot at being invited to fill the quota.

“I am very excited, I am absolutely excited because there’s a lot in my technique [that] is waiting to develop, and I see that like even this morning on my second throw, it was almost there and I clipped the cage,” she told the Jamaica Observer on Sunday.

“And I am like ‘Okay, I know that feeling’, because it is the same feeling I had when I threw the 71m, so I need to just dial in that for the next couple of weeks leading up to the World Champs and I am excited to see what be able to get.”

Clunis threw 70.17m on Sunday, her fourth mark over 70 metres this year. She thinks there is a lot more to come and is satisfied she is ready to face the best in the world.

“This is my fourth national title, but this one is as little different as I am in a better position to go to the World Championships and I felt that I wanted a little bit more [distance], but I am satisfied to know that on a not-so-great day I am still capable of throwing 70.00m.

“This is my first time competing this early this season, and especially competing alone, it takes a toll on me because the competition was finished in like what, 20-25 minutes? So it takes a toll on your body to know that you’re up early by 5:00 am to be ready for a 9:30 am competition.”

The former heptathlete said it has taken a lot to make the progress she has made.

“[It has been] a very frustrating journey because I’m constantly being overlooked all the time and all the hard work that I put in I either fall short or it’s not good enough.”

“I really took a step back with my fall [autumn] training to like dial in certain things that I know would help later on in the season and it really helped me because right through the year I haven’t been injured, thank God.

“I had one small hiccup earlier in March, and then took a week or two off and then came back again and went straight back to the schedule, so I am really more self-aware and self-conscious in how I’m approaching training and having great training partners does help,” she said.

“[I] understand the event a little bit more, about the dynamics of the event work, so I’ve got a little bit more and better understanding of how to push the ball and how to be a little bit more patient and how to trust yourself. So the ball is a lot faster and not me thinking about I need to be faster, to let the ball be fast then your body just dances with the ball…I guess,” she explained.

Clunis is based at Penn State University, home of several national champions. She said the competitive environment helps.

“We have the Norwegian national champion, the Greek national champion, the USA national champ as my training partners, and then we have a couple of Penn State athletes all dropping bombs in practice every day. So you can’t go to practice and have a bad day per se, you have to come up and show my A game because everybody’s doing so well and it’s a good energy to feed off as my training partners are really good.”

Clunis, who has two meets lined up in Canada, said she knows what she has to do to continue chasing her goals.

“My goal for the year was to get 72.50m and I know it’s not the World Championship qualifying mark, but I know that would get me to World Championships, regardless,” she said.

“So whether I hit 73.60m or not, once I hit the 72.50m, yeah, I will be happy to know that last year I was barely even brushing 67.00m. Most of my meets were between 65.00m and 67.00m and now on a bad day I am still able to get 68.00m.

“This season I have improved a lot because I opened with 70.68m, and then my second meet I had a sinus infection which made my body to be like, really be fatigued. I had a headache and was just not feeling myself and I was still able to get 69.00m. So I said on a bad day when my body is feeling like this and I can get 69.00m, I want a perfect meet to see what that would look like and I am still looking for that perfect condition,” Clunis explained