Parchment going for gold
Hansle Parchment has one of the most decorated trophy cases among Jamaican male athletes currently competing, having won medals at the Olympic Games, World Championship and Commonwealth Games.
But apart from his victory at the World University Games in 2011, a gold medal at championships has been eluding the towering sprint hurdler.
Parchment told The Gleaner that he is looking to put the drought to an end this weekend, when he takes part in the 110m hurdles at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) Senior Championship in Toronto, Canada.
“I am always looking to win whenever I compete and this championship is no different,” Parchment said. “It would be nice to get a gold medal here.”
The profile of the NACAC Championships has been raised since president of the IAAF Sebastian Coe stipulated that the champions of each event at the meet will be given a bye into
next year’s World Championships in Qatar.
And though Parchment’s event, 110m hurdles, is exempted for Jamaica since Omar McLeod is the reigning world champion and will take up that automatic spot, the 6 feet 5 inches athlete still has vested interest in the meet.
“The emphasis that is being placed on the meet now certainly makes winning a title here more important,” Parchment said. “Also, I think a lot of people are looking to get the world ranking points and this is a meet where it can be done, so I will be going for that, too.”
The 12.94 seconds athlete also said that he will use the championship to perfect his race execution in order to get back to sub-13 seconds next season.
“It is really not a big year but it is another opportunity to get in some races to prepare for next year. And it is a championship, so I will get to practise running through the rounds,” Parchment said. “I always would want to run under 13 seconds but my efforts are not focused on that at this time now. I am trying to leave that for next year when it counts more. The objective now is to execute a good race and stay injury-free.”
In 2012, Parchment shocked the world to win the bronze medal in the 110m hurdles at the London Olympic Games.
He followed up that performance with a silver medal in the event at the World Championship in 2015 before winning the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year.