Scott – a hop, skip and jump away from his best

AFTER HAMSTRING trouble squelched his indoor season, Jordan Scott is triple jumping with confidence again.

Scott now reckons he has a good chance of reaching the World Championships qualifying standard in Kingston at the National Championships starting on June 23.

On Sunday, he bounded to a 2022 best of 16.69 metres in New York, placing third to Americans Donald Scott and Will Claye.

“We were able to take the time away from competing for a little bit and get the hamstring stuff from early in the season sorted out, so I’m in a pretty good spot. I felt pretty good about Sunday’s competition,” he said a day later.

“I feel it was more of a mental thing for me, in the sense, where I, after a while, tended to have a bit of doubt,” added the former University of Virginia star, “Because [I was] just not getting the results I wanted so I think that was definitely a step in the right direction and I don’t doubt that, with time, I’ll definitely go a little bit further.”

If he is worried about needing to jump the World Championships qualifying standard of 17.14 metres by June 26, the 2019 NCAA Indoor champion doesn’t show it.

“I feel like I’m in good enough shape to get it and we’ve done a little tweaking of the programme over the past two weeks, three weeks and those results have definitely shown this past weekend, so I feel I have a lot more in the tank. So I mean, there’s no better place to get the standard than at home in front of family and friends,” he said.

When the 24-year-old steps on to the National Stadium runway, he will do so as the 2021 champion. His first national title took him to the 2018 CAC Games where he placed fourth and in 2019, he was a Pan-Am Games ninth-place finisher and a competitor at the last Worlds.

17.08 PERSONAL BEST

He set his personal best of 17.08 metres that year as well.

New York put him face to face with multiple World and Olympic medallist Claye and namesake Scott, the American, who placed third at the World Indoors. “These are people I looked up to just growing up in the sport. So it is really an honour to really be competing against them,” he said.

Nevertheless, the big names don’t faze him.

“When I go out there,” Scott determined, “I don’t think of anybody as better than me. At the end of the day, it’s who shows up on the day, I mean, and if somebody outjumps me on the day, kudos to them. I go out there and give my best on the day and if that isn’t good enough, so be it. But I do believe in any competition, if I am 100%, and I give my best, then anybody can win on the day.”