Fri | Jul 26, 2024

Hibbert knows this is just the start

Published:Wednesday | August 23, 2023 | 12:08 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
Jamaica’s Jaydon Hibbert looks on after exiting the World Athletics Championships triple jump finals with a hamstring injury inside the National Athletics Centre on Monday.
Gladstone Taylor
Jamaica’s Jaydon Hibbert looks on after exiting the World Athletics Championships triple jump finals with a hamstring injury inside the National Athletics Centre on Monday.

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY:

HISTORY WILL have to wait for Jaydon Hibbert, for now.

But while there is disappointment, there is also pride and determination in him not only because he’s had an outstanding 2023, but because of the future that is ahead of him.

Hibbert withdrew from the men’s triple jump final on Monday in what would later be confirmed as a mild grade one hamstring strain by his University of Arkansas coach, Travis Geopfert, which he suffered on his first attempt.

Hibbert would pass on his second attempt and despite treatment, Hibbert said Geopfert made the call not to go any further.

“I was just on the runway, planting my foot on the board. It felt like something grabbed me. I don’t know how it came about. I was feeling good in the warm-up,” Hibbert said in a Television Jamaica interview after the final.

“We were trying to go again but it was just not working out. My hamstring was just resisting me from running, so coach said, out of safety, ‘just scrap it’,” Hibbert said.

Hibbert watched as Burkina Faso’s Hugues Zango won the title with a leap of 17.64 metres but while disappointed, was also grateful for a year that got him to the senior World Championships stage for the first time, and which saw him break the world under-20 record, a jump that still stands as the best in the world this year.

In a meteoric season where the 18-year-old progressed further than he or anyone imagined, he is excited about the future that is in store for him.

“If God didn’t want this for me, it wouldn’t happen. Of course, I am a bit disappointed not to be contending for the medal. But we move on. There is the next year and years after years. It is still a great season so far. World junior record. I can’t ask for more,” Hibbert said.

Hibbert hopes that he can take the lessons he learnt this year to continue to get strong after adjusting to his first year at Arkansas.

“I just have to recover and try to replicate everything I did this year and better it next year.”

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com