UNDAUNTED

SINCE BURSTING onto the world scene, Jamaica’s Wayne Pinnock has continued to prove himself one of the best long jumpers in the world, but something is missing.

Pinnock is yet to step onto the centre of the podium at a major world event, that trend continuing on the final day of the World Indoor Championships yesterday.

Pinnock jumped to a season’s best 8.29 metres, a centimetre short of the gold-medal-winning 8.30 mark set by Italy’s Mattia Furlani.

“Over the years, from Budapest to Paris to now, I’ve been getting the silver medal,” Pinnock said yesterday.

The long jumper was speaking about the Budapest World Championships in 2023, where he was second to Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou, and at the Paris Olympics, where he again mined silver behind the great Greek jumper.

But Pinnock isn’t perturbed by the trend.

“I believe God just put some people in the position to wait, and I believe in that. I know when it’s my time, it’s going to be something crazy,” he said.

According to Pinnock, who finished a centimetre ahead of Australia’s Liam Adcock (8.28m), he is remaining grateful for whatever he has achieved so far.

“I just have to be forever grateful. My mindset was to focus and win, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” he said.

“It was a great competition. I know I’m ready to jump. This is just training, and it was my second competition of the season. I know I have a lot more to give.

“My main focus is the outdoors, the World Championships, and I’m going to go back to the drawing board and see if I can win that gold.”

Jamaica took their tally of medals to four on yesterday’s final day, with the men’s 4x400 metres relay team of Rusheen McDonald, Jasauna Dennis, Kimar Farquharson, and Demar Francis earning silver in a season’s best 3:05.05. The team of quarter-milers held off a strong challenge from Hungary, who set a national record of 3:06.03 but were well beaten by the United States, who won in 3:03.13.

Ackera Nugent also turned disaster into triumph yesterday. Running in a semi-final heat of the 60-metre hurdles, Nugent crashed through the final barrier but managed to stay on her feet to qualify for the last showdown, running 8 seconds to finish second behind Pia Skrzyszowska, who won the heat in 7.79.

Nugent then made her presence felt in one of the fastest 60-metre hurdles finals of all time, finishing third in a season’s best 7.74 seconds.

Nugent finished behind another Caribbean woman in The Bahamas’ Devynne Charlton (7.72 SB), who was defending her title. Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji (7.73) was a close second. This was the first time in history that six athletes were running more quickly than 7.80 seconds in a world final.

The previous record was three, prompting Charlton to say she was grateful.

BIG DEAL

“It was a big deal for me to come here and show up and defend my title. It was a big goal for me. It wasn’t looking great, but I trusted the people around me, and I was able to pull it off. It’s super hard to defend a title at an event like this. The women always show up. To come away with a win against these ladies, it’s cool.”

Jamaica ended the meet with four medals and 17th spot on the overall medal table. Raymond Richards won a bronze medal in the men’s high jump on Friday.

There were some surprises on yesterday’s final day as well.

While the likes of Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Gudaf Tsegay lived up to expectation in the 1500m finals, and Sander Skotheim did likewise in the heptathlon, there were several shock wins throughout the final day of action in Nanjing’s Cube.

Claire Bryant set the tone with the first final of the day, taking a surprise victory in the women’s long jump. Another shock soon followed as world and Olympic high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh was beaten by Australian duo Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson.

New Zealand shot putter Tom Walsh produced his best form of the year to take surprise gold medals. Prudence Sekgodiso, meanwhile, was similarly surprised to win the women’s 800m. The men’s 800m, by contrast, went to the form book as Josh Hoey held on for victory.

Normal order was restored by the end of the day, with USA taking dominant wins in both 4x400m finals. It meant that they ended the championships top of the medals table with 16 medals, six of them gold.