‘Abundance of riches’

IF OLYMPIC 110-metre hurdles champion Hansle Parchment wins the 2021 Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Award, it will highlight Jamaica’s depth in his event.

With six of the nation’s fastest-ever male sprint hurdlers all still on the track during 2021, analyst Bruce James thinks it will be tough simply to make the team for next year’s World Championship in Eugene, Oregon.

“Jamaica has an abundance of riches in the men’s 110-metre hurdles. It is historic in my opinion to have the six fastest Jamaican men ever in the event all still actively competing,” James submitted.

Listed by personal best times, this big six comprises Omar McLeod, 12.90 seconds, Parchment 12.94, Ronald Levy 13.05, Rasheed Broadbell 13.10, Damion Thomas 13.11, and Andrew Riley 13.14.

“In 2021, we saw that it was the only event that the Jamaican men were able to earn a medal in at the Olympic Games and actually ended up earning two medals in it, which is also significant,” James noted of the one-three Olympic finish by Parchment and Levy in Tokyo this year.

“I can’t tell you that many people would have been betting on a Hansle Parchment this year. Hansle Parchment’s season’s best coming into the National Championships was 13.49, placing him seventh on the Jamaica list,” James said of the man who zipped 13.04 seconds to win in Tokyo.

That win added to his 2015 World Championship silver and his Olympic bronze from 2012 and made Parchment a prime contender for the RJRGLEANER Communications Group Sports Foundation Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Award, an honour won in 2017 by McLeod, who preceded the tall Port Morant native as Olympic champion.

He reckons the 110-metre hurdles will be compelling at the 2022 National Championships.

“When we look at our six fastest men all still actively competing and we recognise that only three can go to Eugene, one of the big questions is: which three will go?” he queried.

Asked to pinpoint other contenders for team spots next year, James replied: “There’s a young Phillip Lemonious, formerly of Jamaica College. He is spectacular, 13.21, just out of the frame at the National Championships. He could step up but again, the sixth slowest among those is 13.14.”

However, James thinks it will be tough for young contenders like 2019 World Championship semi-finalist Orlando Bennett and even younger prospects like Vashaun Vascianna and Dejour Russell.

“I still feel there’s such a wall to get to, if you want to break into the top three,” he envisaged.

“It’s a tough, tough ask,” James emphasised. “Vascianna came second this year at the World Juniors behind the French wonder kid, (Sasha) Zhoya. So it’s not that we have just our six fastest running at the senior level. We have some of the best juniors coming up,” the analyst listed, “and knocking on the door. And it’s one of those events now where even getting to the finals becomes a challenge.”