Jamaican collegiate athletes delivered an extraordinary display of athletic prowess across multiple U.S. indoor track and field meets on Friday, headlined by Kobe Lawrence’s record-shattering performance in the shot put. Competing for the University of Oregon, Lawrence achieved a monumental throw of 19.81 meters at the Thane Baker Invitational in Kansas, establishing new meet, facility, and personal records while posting the third-best NCAA mark of the current season. His achievement surpassed his previous personal best of 19.21m set in Arkansas last year, broke the meet record previously held by fellow Jamaican Yekini Bowen, and eclipsed a 51-year facility record set by Tucker Smith in 1975.
The exceptional performances extended beyond Lawrence’s historic throw. At the LSU Purple Tiger meet in Baton Rouge, Jordan Turner of LSU leaped to a world-class 7.96 meters in the long jump, momentarily claiming the world lead until Tennessee’s Cade Gray surpassed him later that day. Turner’s remarkable jump represented a significant improvement over his previous best of 7.67m.
Additional Jamaican successes included Salleci Myles’ victory in the women’s 60m hurdles (8.30s), Skyler Franklin’s win in the women’s 200m (24.19s), and Josh-Ty Brown’s shot put triumph (16.36m) at the same LSU meet. Meanwhile, at the Jimmy Carnes Invitational in Florida, Florida State University’s Shenese Walker clocked 23.15 seconds in the women’s 200m, ranking second in NCAA at the time.
The dominance continued at other venues: Daniel Beckford of Northern Colorado University won the men’s 60m hurdles (7.90s) at the Graduate Classic in Nebraska, while Brittianie Johnson of Purdue University achieved a massive personal best of 19.68m in the weight throw at the Corky Classic in Texas, moving up to seventh on Purdue’s all-time list.