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Allen Simms competing as a collegian at USC

Simms Selected For Elite IAAF Coaching Course

10/8/2009 4:54:58 PM | Men's Track & Field

DAVIDSON, N.C. – Identified as one of the best up-and-coming coaches within the North America, Central America and Caribbean region, Davidson assistant track and field coach Allen Simms has been invited to participate in a highly selective jumps coaching course by the International Association of Athletics Federations, the world governing body for track and field.

Simms, one of the top triple jumpers in the United States, was invited to take the IAAF's Level III Jumps Course at the NACAC/IAAF's Regional Development Centre in San Juan, Puerto Rico from Oct. 24 to Nov. 8.

The Level III course is designed to be an introduction to performance coaching for coaches who have demonstrated prior success and have gained a level of coaching specialization in an event group.

The IAAF sponsors a five-level Coaches Education and Certification System to provide a level of instruction that can go beyond those available at the national level. The Level III course is specifically designed to provide nations with high-level coaches.

A 2005 graduate of the University of Southern California, Simms was a seven-time All-American competing in the long and triple jumps.

At the 2008 Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., Simms finished in sixth place overall, just four inches short of making the USA Olympic team. He finished the season ranked fifth nationally.

In 2007, while competing for Puerto Rico, he was national champion in the triple jump and ranked 15th in the world. That year, with a best jump of 56 feet, 2 inches, he qualified for the World Championships and the Olympics with an "A" standard. Simms met the “A” standard in 2004 also, and he participated in the 2003 and 2005 World Outdoor Championships and the 2004 and 2006 World Indoor Championships. In 2004, he was the USA Indoor Champion in the triple jump.

As a collegian, he was the NCAA runner-up at the Outdoor championships in 2005 in the triple jump and the individual champion at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2003.