Mutaz Essa Barshim is one of the greatest high jumpers of all time. Among those standing in the Qatari’s way at the World Athletics Championships is a confident challenger in great form.

JuVaughn Harrison, son of former St Jago High School hurdler Georgia Harrison and St Elizabeth Technical 400 metres ace Dennis Blake, beat Barshim in London last month with a near-personal-best height of 2.35 metres. That victory and a trio of meets over 2.30m have convinced Harrison that he will contend for a medal in the high jump in Budapest, Hungary.

“I feel very confident. I definitely feel like I’m in a medal contention position, and I just have to go out there and keep performing the way I’ve been performing,” he said from his training base at Louisiana State University last week.

He was seventh in the 2021 Olympics and then ninth at last year’s World Championships, but he feels different this time. “Going into the Olympic Games, I was a medal contender. I just didn’t perform as well as I could have, in my personal opinion, and as far as last year, I just feel like, I was just new to the pro scene, so I didn’t get my season right,” the 24-year-old American said.

He plans just to do his best.

“I feel like if people focus too much on the medal,” Harrison revealed, “then they start psyching themselves out.”

At Columbia High School in Alabama, he tried the 300m hurdles.

“I think it’s one of those things where God just blessed me with a lot of jumping ability and height. I mean, I did 300m hurdles at high school, but I was better at jumping so, you know, the jumping just kind of stayed with me, especially that I played basketball pretty much my whole life,” reflected the man who won six NCAA titles for Louisiana State, three in the high jump and three in the long jump.

He was a little nervy at the 2021 Olympics and the 2022 World Championships.

“They gave me the experience I needed to see how I’m going to set up my training schedule, how I needed to prepare per meet, how I needed to prepare going into the big meets. It just gave me a little bit more confidence. Nerves aren’t as bad as they were at those two meets,” Harrison said.

Harrison has produced five wins in five starts this year and winning heights of 2.33m, 2.32m, 2.32m, 2.26m at the US Championships, and 2.35m in London, where he beat Barshim.

A jump beyond his personal record (PR) of 2.36m may be close.

“You don’t have to try to force it. As long as you’re consistent, your body is going to get used to it and when the bar gets higher, or you get to the line, you’re going to compete, you’re setting yourself up to PR,” he said.

Harrison and Barshim both advanced to the high jump final, set for today. Both men cleared 2.28m in the qualifying round on Sunday.