Olympic champion Hansle Parchment believes the sprint hurdles could potentially become a prime-time event in the near future, given the increase in competitiveness across both genders.

Parchment argued that too much focus was being placed on the sprint events when defining the future of Jamaica’s male athletes, in particular since the retirement of Usain Bolt in 2017.

Making reference to Jamaica’s one-three finish in the men’s 110-metre hurdles, as well as Megan Tapper’s historic bronze medal in the women’s equivalent at the just-concluded 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Parchment said those performances could just be the beginning of what can be expected in the event.

“I think we are too focused on the sprints, the 100m and 200m; so it’s time to branch off a little bit to some of the other events. I think we, Jamaica, will be copping a lot of medals in the hurdles, because [Ronald] Levy has a lot of years ahead of him, and then there is Omar [McLeod] and others,” said Parchment.

“We hope more youngsters will take it more seriously, and for the other events as well, because we are now doing well in the sprints and we want to see some more action in the long jump, high jumps and other events,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Parchment, who rose above challenges to top the Olympic podium in a season’s best 13.04 seconds — his fastest time in six years — believes the continued success of both men and women in the obstacle event would pique the interest of aspiring athletes.

The 31-year-old defeated American Grant Holloway (13.09sec), who entered the event as the overwhelming favourite, on his way to becoming the second Jamaican Olympic gold medallist in the 110-metre hurdles. Levy was third in 13.10.

Tapper, Britany Anderson and Yanique Williams are the country’s current standouts on the women’s side.

“The better we do, the more youngsters look up to us and want to challenge themselves in this event. So I think we can look forward to more athletes taking it serious and, who knows, the hurdles could be a prime-time event as well in the near future,” Parchment said on Sunday shortly after returning from Japan.

“Because of the competitiveness we could see ourselves having not just two or three heats at local championships anymore, but maybe six or seven heats, similar to the 100m, and that would bring a lot more hype to the event,” he added.

That said, Parchment, who was the first Jamaican to clock a sub-13 second time in the 110m hurdles, and was also the country’s first Olympic Games and World Championships medallist in the event prior to McLeod’s win at the 2016 Games in Rio, is aiming to add more silverware to his name over the coming years.

The World Championships in Oregon, USA, next year will be first in his line of sight before setting course to defend his Olympic title at the 2024 Games in Paris.

“I am looking forward to the next World Championships and Olympic Games. Once the body is ready, I am ready, because the mind is always ready. So I am looking forward to that, and definitely hopeful that I will bring home the gold again,” said Parchment, who won bronze at the 2012 Olympic Games and silver at the 2015 World Championships.

“It is going to be challenging, because as I said there are a lot of youngsters coming up, and as you can see the hurdles [event] is getting more and more competitive. But I will definitely work towards that and follow my coaches instructions because the pool [sessions] worked so well for the Olympics that we might just keep it as part of our programme,” he noted.