Keturah Orji is heading to Paris. It will be the Mount Olive alumna’s third Olympics.
Orji placed second to Jasmine Moore in USA Track and Field’s triple jump trials on Saturday night in Eugene, Oregon. Her best jump was 46-8 on her final attempt, minutes after Moore had soared 46-9½ to take the lead.
In Friday night’s prelim, Orji had her best jump first, 45-1½, which placed her third heading into the final round.
Orji, 28, is the first American woman to make an Olympic triple jump final twice, in both Rio and Tokyo. She finished fourth in 2016, three centimeters short of a medal. She was seventh three years ago.
Orji is trying to become the first American woman to win an Olympic triple jump medal.
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A 10-time United States champion, Orji has held the American outdoor record (48-11¼) since April 2021. She is currently ranked eighth in the world in her event with a mark of 14.5 meters (47-7) from February. Reigning Olympic champion and world record holder Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela will miss this year’s Games after surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon in April.
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Orji is training in Atlanta – and living with her husband, former Georgia teammate Kisean Smith – after being bicoastal at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California in the leadup to Tokyo.
She is the first woman to win four NCAA Division I triple jump titles while at the University of Georgia. Before that, she was the first female athlete to win both the triple and long jumps at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions three years in a row.
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Mount Olive triple jumper Keturah Orji qualified for third Olympics
