Bronze-coloured amends for Carey
World Championships fourth-place made up for with World Indoor medal
CAREY MCLEOD believes that Jamaica’s second bronze medal of the World Indoor Athletics Championships goes a long way to making up for crashing out of the competition after a freak accident jumping in Budapest last August.
A spectacular slip on takeoff during the global outdoor championship sparked an ongoing row over changes to the long jump launch area and prevented McLeod from fully executing his challenge for a podium place.
He eventually finished an agonising fourth in Hungary and arrived at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow quietly determined to make amends.
McLeod and compatriot, Tajay Gayle, launched a two-pronged attack on the event, which kicked off the second day of action in Scotland.
Both featured in the top six from the third round onwards, making it through to the latter stages but remaining outside the medals, until McLeod landed a season’s best 8.21 metres – a mere centimetre short of the gold won by Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou – with his fifth leap.
The 25-year-old Jamaican, who almost a year ago managed 8.40 in Albuquerque, displayed predictably buoyant emotions after adding bronze to the similarly coloured medal achieved by sprinter Ackeem Blake the night before.
“This makes up a lot for Budapest as I told myself that whatever championship I take part in after that, I must try and get a medal.”
After opening the competition – the first event on Saturday’s programme – with a foul, McLeod explained:
“I’m always a better second-half jumper – they tend to be when I’ve ironed out any problems I’ve had.
“I felt the jumps were there – it was just some technical stuff that I had to sort out.”
McLeod arrived less than three days beforehand, flying over 10 hours to get from his base in Arkansas, so had limited chances to get used to the time difference but made no excuses:
“Competing at 10 a.m. isn’t easy anyway, but I usually practise in the morning so it doesn’t affect me that much.”
Reflecting on the less happy incident which went viral on YouTube and social media, the former Kingston College pupil added:
“I slipped off the board and the new material they use doesn’t allow you to dig your spikes in, so I just kept going.
“I wasn’t injured. I tried to jump on after that but my body just wasn’t responding.
“I always try to carry on and never back down.”
That persistence doubled Jamaica’s tally on the medal table, although fellow countryman Gayle was unable to triple it, finally finishing sixth with a second-round leap of 7.89.
Tentoglou triumphed in what emerged as the tightest of battles with Italy’s Mattia Furlani.
Both started with 8.22 and when Furlani landed 8.10 later in the event, his Greek rival immediately responded with 8.15.
Tentoglou finally celebrated victory in the final jump of the competition – another prodigious leap of 8.19 – to cement the gold medal.