Jamaica joining the ranks of jumps powerhouses

THE RECENT NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas, revealed a new side to Jamaica’s prowess in athletics – wide-ranging jumps power.

Jaydon Hibbert and his Jamaican University of Arkansas colleagues Carey McLeod and Wayne Pinnock dominated the men’s horizontal jumps and Romaine Beckford added an outdoor high jump title to the indoor version he won in March. To sweeten the pot, Ackelia Smith won the women’s long jump.

With the ink just beginning to dry on those results, the man who coached Hibbert, McLeod, Pinnock and Smith in Jamaica had a serene smile on his face as he watched high jumpers Lushane Wilson and Kristoff Bryan do battle at the JAAA All Comers meet inside the National Stadium on Saturday.

“I think we’re on the right path, on the right trajectory. As a jumps coach, you are grateful, but you always will want more because in each event, there are potentially minimum three spaces, so there is still room for improvement,” he said.

In addition, Tajay Gayle took the long jump gold at the 2019 World Championships and high jumpers Lamara Distin and Kimberly Williamson placed first and third at last year’s Commonwealth Games, mere weeks after they both reached the World Championships final in Eugene, Oregon.

Though just 18, Hibbert has the biggest triple jump mark of the 2023 season at 17.87 metres and McLeod, Pinnock and Smith have already tasted international competition at the highest level.

“I’m happy for them. I hope they will continue to improve and grow so that we can definitely challenge every meet, every year at the highest level,” said Delisser, who coached Pinnock to a World Junior long jump bronze in 2021.

Delisser had spent the day at the JISA Preparatory Champs and expressed the hope that Hibbert et al will inspire the young ones.

“You see Prep Champs today, Primary Champs recently, they can come and be the high schoolers and see that we can compete with the best, not just the jumps, the field events,” he said.

Until now, the women’s triple is the only jumping event in which Jamaica has been consistently world class. Trecia Smith took the gold medal at the 2005 World Championships and since then, Kimberly Williams, the World Indoor runner-up, and Shanieka Ricketts, the 2019 and 2022 World Champs silver medallist have kept Jamaica’s colours flying high.

Smith upset favoured American Jasmine Moore to win the NCAA long jump for the University of Texas. Last year, she was a finalist in both horizontals at the Commonwealth Games.

Delisser can see a day when Jamaica pushes its Olympic and World Championships medal count to 20 with maximum value from the jumps. “Definitely,” he responded.

“And if you can get essentially, you’re looking at two triple jumps, two long jumps, two high jumps, you have a lot of medals that we can work towards. I mean, definitely, once we keep heading in the right direction, the 20 is on the cards.”