Tyra Gittens smashed her own Trinidad and Tobago women’s heptathlon record, yesterday, accumulating 6,418 points in the seven-discipline event to strike gold at the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Texas, USA.

Gittens also established national records in the high jump and long jump. Yesterday’s 6.96 metres leap in the heptathlon long jump earned the T&T athlete a ticket to the July 23-August 8 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. The jump was 14 centimetres better than the 6.82 qualifying standard.

With the big heptathlon score, Gittens moved into top spot on the 2021 world performance list, ahead of Colombia’s Evelyn Aguilar (6,346).

Gittens was on fire on Thursday, earning 3,920 points in the first four disciplines to set up yesterday’s record-breaking feat. The 6,418 total bettered her previous national record of 6,074, established in 2018, and was also a new meet record. Gittens totalled 6,274 last month. The score, though, was wind-aided, and not recognised as a new T&T standard.

The most impressive of Thursday’s four performances came in the high jump, Gittens clearing the bar at 1.95 metres to claim sole possession of the national record. The Olympic qualifying standard is 1.96. Going into the meet, the Texas A&M University student was joint-holder of the T&T standard, sharing the 1.93m record with Natasha Alleyne-Gibson.

With the big 1.95 clearance, Gittens jumped into fourth spot on the 2021 world outdoor performance list. Australian Nicola McDermott is the global leader at two metres flat. American Vashti Cunningham and Uzbekistan’s Svetlana Radzivil are joint-second at 1.97. Gittens is at the top of the 2021 American collegiate list.

Gittens opened her bid for SEC heptathlon gold with a wind-assisted 13.47 seconds run in the 100m hurdles. She followed up with the jaw-dropping high jump effort, before producing an 11.96 metres throw in the shot put. The 22-year-old closed off day one in style, stopping the clock at a personal best 23.43 seconds in the 200m.

On day two of the heptathlon, yesterday, Gittens produced the huge 6.96m national record leap for top spot in the long jump. With that impressive effort, Gittens erased a 14-year-old T&T standard from the books, relegating the 6.82m record established by Rhonda Watkins back in 2007 to second spot on the all-time T&T list. Gittens’ leap was also a new meet record.

At 6.96, Gittens is fifth on the 2021 world outdoor performance list. American Tara Davis leads the world with a 7.14m leap. British Virgin Islands athlete Chantel Malone is second at 7.08, while Russia’s Darya Klishina (7.01) and American Kendell Williams (7.00) are third and fourth, respectively.

Gittens threw 40.18m in the javelin. And in the 800m, the rising star returned a time of two minutes, 31.97 seconds to finish 10th. The 668 points earned in the two-lap race carried Gittens to 6,418-agonisingly close to the 6,420 Olympic qualifying standard.

On Thursday, Louisiana State University (LSU) senior Akanni Hislop clocked 21.06 seconds to finish sixth in heat one and 15th overall in the men’s 200m. The top nine sprinters progressed to today’s final.

After press time, yesterday, Gittens competed in the individual long jump and 100m hurdles, while Hislop faced the starter in the 100m dash. University of Alabama thrower Cherisse Murray was on show in the women’s shot put. And in the men’s 400m preliminaries, T&T had representation from University of Kentucky’s Dwight St Hillaire and Alabama’s Joshua Jacob St Clair.