Triple jumpers Russell Robinson, Donald Scott qualify for Paris Olympic Games

Central Florida will have two Olympians competing in the men’s triple jump at the Paris Games next month.

Both Russell Robinson of West Orange and Donald Scott of Apopka qualified for Paris, finishing second and third at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials on Sunday in Eugene, Ore.

They will be joined on the U.S. men’s Olympic triple jump team by top finisher Salif Mane from Fairleigh Dickinson, who leaped an Olympic Trials record of 17.58 meters.

Robinson had leap of 17.01 meters, and knocked Scott into third with the jump. Russell, a senior for the University of Miami, finished second in the NCAA Outdoor championships in May.

Scott qualifies for his second Olympic Games, clinching the final spot with a leap of 16.87 meters.

He hit his qualifying mark with his third jump of the first round and held that spot through the final round.

Scott, who finished seventh at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, faced some adversity, scratching on his first jump, so he needed to hit one of his two remaining preliminary jumps to qualify for one of the eight spots in the final round.

On jump No. 2, Scott hit a 16.62-meter leap that put him in third place, but only momentarily after NCAA champion Mane popped a Sunday-best leap of 17.28 meters. Scott sat in fifth place on his third attempt, finally getting in stride and landing a 16.87 mark to put him in second place heading into the final round of eight.

Scott, whose personal best jump is 17.43 meters, did not come close to that on Sunday, but he’s headed to Paris, along with his fiancée, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who qualified in the women’s 100-meter hurdles and will represent Puerto Rico in Paris. They live in Apopka.

This will be Robinson’s first Olympic Games.

Chris Hays can be found on X @OS_ChrisHays . He can be reached via email at chays@orlandosentinel.com .