BATON ROUGE – Jamaican long jumper Damar Forbes was honoured as LSU’s Male Athlete of the Year for the 2012-13 athletic season.
Forbes, who won the SEC and NCAA championships in the long jump during his senior season a year ago, was recognized as part of this year’s Tiger Athletic Foundation Academic Excellence Gala held on Tuesday of last week.
Forbes’ historic double during the 2013 outdoor season was highlighted by the two farthest jumps of his collegiate career under all conditions, as he followed a winning wind-aided jump of 27 feet, 4 ½ inches at the SEC Championships with a title-clinching wind-aided jump of 27-4 ¾ at the NCAA Championships. He also led off LSU’s 4×100-meter relay team that captured the SEC Outdoor title and placed fourth nationally a year ago.
Forbes is one of only five Tigers to earn the NCAA Outdoor championship in the long jump during his collegiate career, joining the likes of Billy Brown (1941), Llewellyn Starks (1990), Walter Davis (2002) and John Moffitt (2004) as a national champion. He ended his collegiate career ranked No. 2 indoors (26-11 ¼) and No. 2 outdoors (27-0 ¾) on LSU’s all-time performance list in his event.
Most importantly, Forbes graduated from LSU in May of last year with his degree in sport administration before signing his first professional contract with Nike as one of the world’s up-and-coming long jump stars.
Meanwhile, LSU Scholar-Athlete Director’s Cup Recipients, also included another Jamaican in Shanice Hall. Hall is a long/triple jumper.