Kerr opens collegiate career

KAVIAN KERR, Jamaica’s 2021 World Under-20 long jump bronze medal winner, began his collegiate endeavours on Saturday with two trips to the track in Manhattan, Kansas. Kerr laid down two solid performances with indoor runs over 60 and 300 metres.

Winner of the Class One long jump at Boys and Girls’ Championships in May for St Jago High School, Kerr stepped to fourth overall in the 60m with a time of 6.90 seconds at the Winter Invitational. In the same meet, he travelled a lap and a half of the track at his new home, Kansas State University, in an indoor personal best 34.95 seconds, to again finish fourth overall.

Those results are a reminder that he was a capable sprinter at St Jago High. He logged times of 10.54 seconds for the 100m, 21.31 for 200 metres and 36.17 seconds for the 300m, all in 2019.

In November, the respected American journal, TRACK AND FIELD NEWS, named Kerr as the top US college recruit in the long jump.

Antonio Hanson, the former Herbert Morrison and Excelsior standout, tested himself at twice the distance and chased American Isiah Levingston to a meet record over 600 yards. Levingston clocked one minute, 10.86 seconds with Hanson, who is also at Kansas State, timed in 1.11.44.

Kerr and Hanson, who were teammates at the 2021 World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, were not the only Jamaicans in action at the meet dubbed the Winter Invitational. Tashia Pryce, a graduate of St Andrew Technical High School, and Velecia Williams, once of Hydel High, swapped places in the sprints. Williams edged Pryce 7.54 to 7.60 seconds for third and fourth in the 60 metres, with Pryce, a triple jumper, well ahead at 39.35 seconds in the 300 metres. Williams was sixth.

CARIBBEAN CHAMPIONS

Notably, Kansas State took the women’s 4x400-metre relay with an all-Caribbean quartet. O’Shalia Johnson, formerly of St Elizabeth Technical High School, Shalysa Wray, a Caymanian, and Jamaican Lavaun Stephenson, who both went to St Jago, and Guyanese triple jumper Shantobia Bright won in three minutes, 47.20 seconds.

Incidentally, TRACK AND FIELD NEWS named four other Jamaicans as top recruits in other events. They are 2021 World Under-20 medal winners Vashaun Vascianna (110m hurdles and Devontie Archer (400m hurdles), and triple jumpers Ackelia Smith and Apalos Edwards. They now attend the University of Texas, Texas Tech, Auburn and Louisiana State University, respectively.