Don’t forget the Olympic champion – Wignall

MAURICE WIGNALL, the dean of Jamaican sprint hurdlers, while impressed with Rasheed Broadbell, isn’t counting Olympic champion Hansle Parchment out of the running at the World Championships in Budapest.

According to Wignall, Parchment’s big-race experience makes him a factor.

Now 33, Parchment won Jamaica’s first World Championship 110-metre hurdles medal in 2015 and since then, took gold at the 2021 Olympics, ahead of American star Grant Holloway.

“I’m not counting out Parchment. You cannot count out a champion at any point in time. You can’t count out that champion person. They’ve been there before. They know what it feels like,” Wignall declared.

Parchment was second to the impressive Broadbell and ahead of Orlando Bennett at the recent Nationals, and Wignall can see him in the Budapest final.

Recalling a chat he had with Parchment just before Nationals, the 2006 Commonwealth Games winner said: “He said, he’s in good shape. He’s coming back a little bit from some injuries, but he’s feeling good in practice and he’s getting to where he needs to be. Now, if Parchment is going to say that, I would take him at his word because he’s never one to say a lot, run off his mouth and, you know, make any big predictions but the feeling is that he’s in good shape.”

Then he added, “Now, if Parchment is in the final, given his overall preparation, he’s the one with more races, he gets ready, he gets better. If he’s in the final, that’s one step towards what he wants to achieve.”

Bennett reached the semi-finals in both 2019 and 2022, and Wignall says that experience could help the 2018 World Under-20 runner-up to reach the Budapest final.

“If Bennett can hold fast and rely on that type of experience, he could pace himself through the rounds. If he can pace himself through the rounds and if his coach is understanding of what is required at this level, then I think Bennett could make the finals,” said Wignall.

“I’m not just saying that’s all he can do, but it’s a blank slate when you get to the finals.”

The only three men under 13 seconds so far in 2023 are Broadbell, reigning world champion Grant Holloway, and US newcomer Cordel Tinch.

However, Wignall warns that fast pre-Championship times are no guarantee.

“In 2021, at the staging of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, I think it was Holloway who went in as the clear, clear, overwhelming favourite. He was 0.01 off the world record and everybody thought before the championships he would have been the favourite, and he got into trouble, by himself in his own race, and kinda broke down, which now opened the door for Parchment.”