‘He’s in a really good place right now’

IN 2023, JAYDON Hibbert tripled jumped just 11 times in competition as he and his University of Arkansas coach Travis Geopfert sought to minimise the stress on his 18-year-old body.

With the lanky Jamaican celebrating his 19th birthday on January 17, the same thinking has led Geopfert to advise Hibbert to skip the 2024 indoor season.

He jumped just three times indoors and wrapped up his first undercover season with a world under-20 record – 17.54 metres – to win the NCAA title for Arkansas, but he won’t be defending that crown.

“Yes, we’re laying off indoors,” said the coach on January 20 at the Central Hurdles and Relays meet, which was held at the G.C. Foster College for Physical Education and Sport.

“Obviously, it was a long season last year even though we did a good job in limiting his jumps and he was intelligent in how he handled everything. He’s still very young, he’s still growing,” Geopfert emphasised, “and we have to continue to be intelligent with the number of competitions.”

The strategy produced even longer jumps outdoors. He boomed to 17.87 metres in May, and that ended as the longest triple jump mark of 2023. In addition, Hibbert marked 17.70 in qualifying at the Budapest World Championships. That led all qualifiers and was even longer than the gold-medal distance – 17.67 metres – by Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso.

Unfortunately, Hibbert was injured during his first jump in the final and couldn’t continue.

Fast-forward to 2024, and according to the coach, Hibbert has invested time in the weight room, and it’ is paying dividends.

“He’s had some personal bests in the weight room, all while keeping his body weight the same, so doing a great job there,” Geopfert reported.

Midway through 2023, Hibbert’s coaching staff began to extend his run-up from 12 steps to 14. That work will continue.

“From a technical standpoint, we’re working the acceleration pattern on the back half of his approach, just taking things slow. We haven’t done a whole lot of speed work yet really,” said Geopfert.

The outdoor season starts in earnest in March, and that is when fans can expect to see the results of the background work Hibbert has done.

“The next cycle will be fine, which we call out our contrast or potentiation cycle, and then we’ll start to pick up a little bit, but he’s in a really good place right now.”