Carifta medallist Arantxa King has added two US high school championship golds to her swelling trophy cabinet over the weekend, leaping to success in the long jump and triple jump.

The Medford High sophomore, daughter of former athlete Branwen Smith-King, won her events in the Nike Outdoor Nationals at North Carolina A&T - the unofficial high school national championships - her first foray into a meet of this calibre.

‘'I didn't expect to win,” the 15-year-old King said, as she shyly accepted compliments from her competitors following Saturday's long jump win.

‘'I just wanted to place. As I kept on going down the runway, I kind of wanted to get up there. Usually if I do a good jump, it's usually my beginning jump,” King said. ‘'And this is my first time that my last jump was my winning jump.”

Although her long jump victory was impressive - she also leapt to Carifta gold in the event in Tobago earlier this year - it was the win in the triple jump that earned her the most plaudits.

She told her mother before the competition that she didn't think she could jump far enough even to make the sand pit, Smith-King took some pressure off her daughter, reminding her that the triple wasn't her strongest event.

“I said, ‘oh, you'll make it, and if you don't, don't worry about it. You're here to long jump.' That was a little psychology to take the pressure off,” said Smith-King, who also coaches her daughter.

“This is new for her, my philosophy is to try different things.”