Sun | Dec 29, 2024

Inez Turner to be inducted into CIAA Hall of Fame

Published:Friday | December 20, 2024 | 12:06 AMGregory Bryce/Staff Reporter
Inez Turner (right) collects a plaque from Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association President Garth Gayle at last year’s JAAA PUMA Jamalco Development meet. Turner was one of four former national athletes who were honoured by the organisers of the
File
Inez Turner (right) collects a plaque from Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association President Garth Gayle at last year’s JAAA PUMA Jamalco Development meet. Turner was one of four former national athletes who were honoured by the organisers of the meet.

Former national middle-distance athlete - and now, coach - Inez Turner has been selected to be inducted into the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) 2025 John B. McLendon Hall of Fame Class.

Set to be inducted in February next year, Turner was selected off the back of her impressive tenure as head coach of Fayetteville State University (FSU) track and field programme, among her other accolades.

Since her appointment in 2017, Turner has overseen unprecedented success at FSU where she guided the women’s cross country team to six consecutive CIAA conference titles, with their men’s cross country team achieving consecutive titles in 2022 and 2023.

She also guided FSU to their first-ever women’s indoor conference title in 2020 before claiming a further three titles across consecutive years in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Turner’s achievements in the CIAA have also preceded her time at FSU as previously, she coached at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU).

At WSSU, she guided her team to four women’s cross country titles, three women’s indoor titles, one women’s outdoor title, and a single men’s cross country title.

Throughout her 14-year stint in the CIAA, Turner has won 24 conference championships titles, which were accompanied by her 24 CIAA Coach of the Year accolades across all categories.

The CIAA Hall of Fame induction will be Turner’s fourth across her career as she has already been inducted into the Penn Relays, the National Junior College Hall of Fame, and Texas State University (TSU) Hall of Fames.

Turner rose to prominence as an athlete during the 1980s when she made her name throughout her junior career representing Vere Technical during the school’s 14-year sweep at the then named ‘Girls Champs’.

Before making her senior debut, Turner had won several junior international medals, including nine Carifta Games medals, seven gold and two silver, and three Central American and Caribbean Junior Championship medals - one gold and two silver.

Throughout her collegiate career at TSU, she won two back-to-back National Collegiate Athletics Association championships in the 800m and had set a school record of 2:00.27 minutes while doing so.

At the senior level, she won gold in the women’s 800m at the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games as well as bronze in the women’s 4x400m at the 1997 Athens World Championships, setting a then national record of 3:21.30. She was also a member of Jamaica’s 4x400m team at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Turner began coaching in 2004 before officially retiring as an athlete in 2007.

She will be inducted into the (CIAA) 2025 John B. McLendon Hall of Fame on February 28, 2025, at the Baltimore Convention Center Ballroom.