Hyde: I had to take it by any means necessary

EUGENE, Oregon

By any means necessary, 400 metres hurdler Jaheel Hyde said that he had to secure a championship final qualification.

Now the 25-year-old will run the biggest race of his career, the lone Jamaican in tonight’s 400m men’s hurdles final which begins at 9:50 Jamaica time, the final event of day five of the World Athletics Championships.

Before the championships began, Hyde said that he wasn’t satisfied with just making senior championship teams any more and was setting his standards higher. That was evident in his semi-final round on Sunday, where he stretched at the last hurdle to clock 49.09 seconds to finish as an automatic qualifier.

When asked after the semi-final if the race was painful, Hyde did not mince any words.

“Very. I had to take it by any means necessary. But I am pretty happy,” Hyde said.

It is a welcome sight after last year’s Tokyo Olympics where he seemed to be on his way to advancing to the final but clipped a barrier and would finish eighth. That semi-final is now just a distant memory for Hyde who will test his talents against the three men who took the podium in Tokyo, Olympic champion and world record holder Karsten Warholm of Norway, silver medallist and the second-fastest man in history Rai Benjamin of the United States and bronze medallist Alison Dos Santos of Brazil who has the fastest time in the world this year (46.80).

In the moments after he secured his qualification, Hyde’s focus was already about the opportunity that now awaits him tonight.

“I don’t have many thoughts to be honest. I guess when I go home I will just process it and get ready for the final,” Hyde said. Jamaica’s Kemar Mowatt made the 2017 final and finished fourth. Jamaica’s last World Championships medal in the event came from Winthrop Graham who finished third at the 1993 championships in Stuttgart.

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com