Jah-Nhai Perinchief continued his fine start to the indoor athletics season after producing two podium displays at the Hawkeye Invitational at the University of Iowa at the weekend.

The Iowa Central Community College athlete won the men’s triple jump event with a leap of 15.55 metres and was third in the long jump after soaring to 7.35.

Perinchief, who is ranked seventh in the world in high jump at the under-20 level, won the triple jump with his sixth attempt and secured third in the long jump with his third at the Iowa Recreation Building.

The 19-year-old made a bright start to the new year the previous weekend after claiming a win in the high jump despite carrying a niggling injury with a leap of 2.17 at an indoor meet at Minnesota State University in Mankato.

Perinchief is a two-times national junior college champion, five-times national junior college All-American who also holds the Bermuda national high jump record of 2.26, which he achieved at last year’s Wichita State KT Woodman Classic.

He also helped lead his team to last year’s Junior College Indoor National Championship and represented Bermuda at the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, where he finished eighth.

Perinchief will follow in the footsteps of Bermudian world champion Brian Wellman, by enrolling in the University of Arkansas’ track-and-field programme.

He chose Arkansas over several other universities, including Georgia, Purdue, Iowa and Albany and will begin studies in the autumn at the university, whose legendary programme has won 11 NCAA cross-country titles, 20 indoor titles and ten outdoor titles.

Arkansas is the same university where Wellman, the former world indoor triple jump champion, honed his skills.

Wellman, who holds Bermudian records in the indoor (17.72 metres) and outdoor triple jump (17.62), won two NCAA outdoor titles during his time at Arkansas. Among Perinchief’s short-term objectives is qualifying for this summer’s World Championship in London.

“The World Championships is a major goal for me,” Perinchief said. “Depending on how this season goes I plan to do something special for the island.”