Jaheel Hyde not satisfied despite PB in Eugene
EUGENE, Oregon — Despite a big personal best 48.03 seconds in the men’s 400m hurdles final on Tuesday evening at the World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, Jamaica’s Jaheel Hyde is not satisfied and says he has a lot more work to do before he gets where he wants to go.
“I am pretty happy with [the race], but a bit disappointed with the type of finish that I had, but there is a lot of room for improvement,” Hyde, who won titles at the World Under-20 Championships in Barcelona, Spain, in 2012 and again in Euge ne, Oregon, in 2014, failed to get into the Olympic finals in Tokyo, Japan, last year after he fell in the semi-finals, said on Tuesday.
The 48.03 seconds, which landed him sixth in Tuesday’s final, beat his previous best of 48.18 seconds set last year while winning at the National Championships. The time is the third best ever by a Jamaican man.
Only Winthrop Graham’s National record 47.60 and Olympic silver medallist Danny McFarlane’s 48.00 are ahead of the 25-year-old who jumped from sixth place on the Jamaican list.
Hyde told the Jamaica Observer after the final that the disappointment at the end of the race was mostly caused by a technical breakdown.
“Just a loss of technique, a little weakness set in so I know that I have a lot of work to do. It’s physical, I am mentally tough,” he said, while admitting the race had taken a lot out of him physically
“I am in a lot of pain right now.”
Overall, though, he was happy with his accomplishment.
“My first final at a senior global championships and I PBed, I always want to PB on the big stage so that is a plus for me,” said Hyde who improved to number eight in the world.
Interestingly, the second of his two World Under-20 titles came at Hayward Field, before the multimillion-dollar upgrade to expand it to 30,000 seats.
“I like to run anywhere, and it so happens that the second Under-20 title was at Hayward and now this,” he said.
Hyde, who was in lane seven, got off to a fast start in the final and was in the top three for at least 250 metres.
“To be honest you really can’t have a race plan going up against these guys. The only race plan is to just run,” adding, “It’s always a pleasure to run against these guys whether it’s a final or heats or anything, the calibre of athletes that are here, it’s really admirable.”
Brazil’s National record holder Alison Dos Santos won with a championship record and world leading 46.29 seconds, beating American Rai Benjamin’s season’s best 46.89, which is the second best time in the world this season. Trevor Bassitt took the bronze with a personal best 47.39, the third best in the world.
France’s Wilfried Happio was fourth with a personal best 47.41 seconds, the fourth best in the world.
— Paul A Reid