Rising triple jump star Hibbert thinks he’s on track to his best
DESPITE breaking the World Under-20 record in the triple jump at last weekend’s Southeastern Conference (SEC) Outdoors championships held at Louisiana State University in Baton Rogue, the University of Arkansas Freshman Jaydon Hibbert says he does not think he is anywhere close to his best.
Hibbert won the event when he jumped a massive 17.87m (1.3m/s) in the second round, achieving a number of milestones with the one leap — the World Under-20, World lead; NCAA, SEC and University of Arkansas programme records as well as the joint 17th best jump ever in history.
The 18-year-old former Kingston College athlete was the highlight of the weekend that saw a number of outstanding performances by Jamaicans at their respective conference championships.
Akelia Smith of the University of Texas won the women’s long jump and triple jump double at the Big12 Championships, while Roje Stona of the University of Arkansas won the SEC men’s discus throw with 68.64m.
Smith’s huge personal best 7.08m in the long jump on Saturday was the second best ever by a Jamaican in the event, just as Hibbert’s and Stona’s performances.
Hibbert, whose previous personal best in the outdoors triple jump was 17.27m set while winning the World Under-20 Championships gold medal last year, sailed past the 38-year-old World Under-20 record of 17.50m set by Volker Mai of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1985.
He also took over the World lead 17.81m held by Burundi’s Fabrice Zango and is second on the Jamaican all time behind James Beckford’s 17.92m set in 1995.
Hibbert, who won back-toback Carifta Games Under-20 titles, said he surprised himself as he went into the competition expecting to jump “17.4-5m max”, and he said afterwards, “but when I saw the 17.8, I thought ‘OK, that’s it for me’.”
He had also won the NCAA Division 1 indoor title in March with 17.54m, a distance that bettered the previous World Under-20 indoor record of 17.20m set in 2017 by France’s Melvin Raffin but that mark is yet to be ratified by World Athletics.
“I just need to stop putting limits on myself at this point,” Hibbert told the University Arkansas sports information on Saturday. “I have been doing the event just three years now, so I am still soaking it up now.”
There were some doubt right after the jump, and Hibbert said: “I thought it was a foul as I hit the board perfectly, but then I saw the white flag.”
“I will just reset and refocus for [the NCAA West] regionals, but I am not sure if I will peak before World Championships,” he added.
Hibbert said he thought it was the third phase of the jump that made the big difference for him.
“I think it was the jump phase as I was in the air for a while...it’s all about trusting the process, God has shown me in plenty ways where I am talented, I am obviously favoured, but I do put in the hard work, but I have to give this one to God as I don’t think there is any 18-year-old that does the stuff that I do, but I am honestly proud of myself and my coach for being patient with me and for being a good person, more than a coach.”
Smith, who competed in both the long and triple jumps at the World Championships last year, took over the World lead in the long jump from American Tara Davis-woodhall and broke the Big12 record and is the new NCAA lead.
She broke her personal best twice on Saturday as she had jumped 6.74m (1.6m/s) in first round, further than her previous best of 6.65m set last year by just over half a metre, taking her from 20th best by a Jamaican to second best behind Elva Goulbourne’s national record 7.16m set in 2004.
On Sunday Smith, who was also a two-time finalist at the Commonwealth Games, won the triple jump with 13.75m (-0.6m/s).
Stona moved into second place behind Fedrick Dacres’ national record 70.78m with his massive throw after he had thrown 67.02m two weeks ago at the same venue.
It was a SEC Outdoor Championships meet record and the second-best performer and third-best performance on the NCAA all-time list and also improves his Arkansas record.
Ralford Mullings, also of the University of Arkansas, was second with a throw of 62.00m.
Despite mourning the tragic death of her cousin who was shot and killed in Hanover earlier in the week, Lamara Distin maintained her perfect season, retaining her SEC women’s high jump title, clearing 1.91m.
Nikaoli Williams of the University of Oklahoma won the Big12 men’s long jump title with a mark of 7.80m (1.6m/s) while former St Elizabeth Technical athlete Jhavor Bennett of Kansas State was sixth with 7.57m (0.5m/s).
Demisha Roswell of Texas Tech University retained her 100m hurdles title with a time of 13.02 seconds (1.0m/s) after winning the indoor 60m title while Kevona Davis of the University of Texas was second in both the 100m — 11.04 seconds (0.2m/s) and the 200m — 22.51 (0.3m/s), both times behind her teammate Julien Alfred.
Nia Robinson of the University of South Florida broke the programme record and American Athletics Conference record when she won the long jump with a personal best 6.69m, ninth best all time by a Jamaican woman with only two jumps in the weather-affected event.
She also had season’s best marks of 12.67m in the triple jump and 1.76m in the high jump.
There were also with other USF athletes — Romaine Beckford retained his men’s high jump title with 2.17; Sanique Walker set a programme and AAC record 55.87 seconds to win the 400m hurdles, while Shevioe Reid won the men’s 400m in 45.96 seconds and was third in the 200m in 20.53 seconds.
Adrienne Adams of the University of Central Florida was second in the women’s discus throw with 53.13m.
Former Montego Bay High and Mt Alvernia High athlete Roschell Clayton of Villanova won her first Big East Conference title, taking the women’s high jump with 1.78m while her teammate, former Jamaica College athlete Malik Cunningham added the outdoor men’s triple jump to the indoor title when he won the event with 15.87m (0.0m/s). Tareese Rhoden of Clemson University stepped down fro the 800m and won the men’s 400m, running a personal best 45.60 seconds and less than an hour later finished eighth in the two lap event, running 1:58.88 seconds.
Former Petersfield High standout Shaquena Foote, now at San Diego State, won the Mountain West women’s 400m title with 52.57 seconds, was fifth in the 200m in 23.58 seconds while running legs on both 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams that won.
Former Calabar thrower Tarique George of the University of Wyoming was third in the men’s discus throw with a personal best 55.27m.
Lotavia Brown of the University of Nebraska won the Big10 women’s triple jump with a personal best 13.33m (1.0m/s); Yanique Dayle of Ohio State University won the women’s 200m with 22.87 (0.0m/s); Zidane Brown, also of Ohio State, was second in the men’s 400m with 45.75 seconds while Brithon Senior of Nebraska was third in the 110m hurdles with 13.61 seconds (0.7m/s).