{"id":2597,"date":"2019-07-29T21:48:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T21:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2597"},"modified":"2019-07-29T21:48:30","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T21:48:30","slug":"distin-heading-to-texas-a-and-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2597","title":{"rendered":"Distin heading to Texas A and M"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Noelita Lawrence-Ricketts<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flurry of Western student athletes leaving the comforts of home continues with jumper, Lamara Distin, the latest name to be added to the growing list.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nineteen-year-old Distin, who started out participating in\nsporting events while at Corinaldi Avenue Primary, is jetting off to Texas A\nand M University, in Texas, USA,  where\nshe has inked a 4-year scholarship which will see her majoring in Sports\nManagement and Business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distin, who describes herself as jovial, but very shy,\nrevealed that a number of other high-profiled universities, with lots of\nJamaican acquaintances, courted her – namely Louisiana State, Florida State,\nthe University of Texas, IOWA and Oklohoma, among others, but disclosed that\nshe chose Texas A and M because of its rich history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt (Texas A and M) is well-known for its academics and\nprestigious programmes,\u201d she noted, it has a great environment. \u201cIt\u2019s a\nbeautiful place and has my major, something many of the others don\u2019t, so my\nchoice was pretty simple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey may not have the best jump programmes, but I know with\nthe help of coaches and my drive and passion to excel, I will do well and make\nmy mark,\u201d she added.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distin, who\u2019s a firm believer in the works of the Almighty,\nsays she is confident all will go well as \u201cwith God, all things are possible\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The university is among the ten largest in the US and Distin\nis looking forward to making her mark and leaving a legacy where so many other\nJamaican athletes have gone and excelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HANOVER-GROWN<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The soft-spoken, Distin who hails from the quiet parish of\nHanover, told the Western Mirror<\/strong> she was born at the now crippled\nCornwall Regional Hospital, but spent her early years in Hopewell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much-travelled for her years, Distin has been to three high\nschools since departing Corinaldi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She spent three years at Rusea\u2019s High in Hanover, before\nleaving for Vere Technical where she did another two, and then the final stop\nat Hydel, where she says she has \u201cgained a wealth of valuable knowledge and\nexperience that will take her through a lifetime\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lanky athlete, who declared sports has always been a\npassion of hers from an early age, has gained several spots on National Youth\nteams, gained her first call at the national level, at age 14 when she\ntravelled to the CARIFTA GAMES held in Martinique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, Distin opened her National youth medal count winning\nthe team\u2019s first gold medal. She has won an overall four between 2015 and 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has also represented the country at the World Under-20,\nwhere she was ranked amongst the 12 best in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pan American Junior Under-20 Games in Costa Rica was\nanother of her tournaments last year where she bagged a silver medal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has also won several medals at the ISSA Boys\u2019 and Girls\u2019\nAthletics Championships held annually at the National Stadium and capped last\nyear, her final appearance, with a record performance in the High Jump,\nclearing the bar at 1.87 metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was also first in the Triple Jump, cutting the sand at\n13.37 metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A stand-out amongst her peers largely because of her height,\nDistin says making National teams over the years has impacted her life,\nexposing her to the outer world and allowing her to compete with the best in\nthe world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy best year so far was my final at high school where I\nleft a mark. Why am I so satisfied with it? I broke a record and it\u2019s always\nsomething I wanted to do at Champs – break a record.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distin, who is scheduled to leave the island in early\nAugust, is the latest set to depart for an overseas scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just last week, news came that Leacroft Lettman, formerly of\nCornwall College and St. George\u2019s College, is also down for departure, after he\nsigned a 4-year academic and soccer gold scholarship with Maine University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lettman, also 19, will carry out studies in attaining a\nBachelors of Science in Nursing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The flurry of Western student athletes leaving the comforts of home continues with jumper, Lamara Distin, the latest name to be added to the growing list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1428,985,1425,1424,1426,1427,139,754],"class_list":["post-2597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-carifta-games","tag-college","tag-lamara-distin","tag-long-jumper","tag-texas-a-and-m","tag-united-states","tag-usa","tag-western-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2597"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2600,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597\/revisions\/2600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}