KINGSTON, Jamaica — Emotions ran high for Kingston College’s Wayne Pinnock after he leapt to a scintillating record of 8.05 metres to cop gold in the boys’ Class One long jump on day two of the ongoing ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’and Girls’ Athletic Championships at the National Stadium.

Pinnock, who has been promising much all season, justified his superb form with the massive eight-metre leap that destroyed the 26-year-old mark of 7.87m set by Vere Technical’s Leon Gordon in 1993.

He showed his class at the Gibson/McCook Relays when he achieved a wind-aided 8.14m.

However, with this breathtaking performance done in a negative 0.8 mps reading, Pinnock became the first Class One athlete to go beyond eight metres at these championships and also registered a world leading mark by a Under-20 athlete this year.

The mark ranks him eighth in the world among senior athletes.

So heartwarming was the performance that the tears flowed freely from the 18-year-old who was the first Jamaican male to medal in the long jump at a World Under-20 Championships when he won bronze in Finland last year.

Pinnock had earlier recorded 7.95m before returning to topple that mark in impressive fashion.

Sherdon Cowan