HAVING battled a series of leg injuries over the past few years, former world long jump champion Tajay Gayle has declared he is fit and ready to compete at his best this season.

Gayle, the 2019 world champion, failed to defend his title in Eugene, Oregon, last summer due to an injury he sustained at National Championships.

In fact, he failed to make the final at the World Championships in Eugene after he committed three foul jumps in the qualifying round of the competition.

The 26-year-old Gayle, who opened his season in the long jump competition at the S W Isaac Henry meet Saturday, at the National Stadium, said his training has been going well this season and he is now feeling a lot more confident in himself.

“Currently I am much more explosive than my previous self — much faster, much more focused, and I am happier and confident,” said Gayle.

“I don’t know how much further [I] can jump now but I am sure that I can jump much farther than my previous self,” he said.

“Training has been showing that I am much more powerful than I was and much faster,” Gayle said.

The former Papine High School student, who is coached by Stephen Francis at the MVP Track and Field Club, stunned the world in 2019 at the World Championships when he leapt to 8.69m to win the gold medal.

However, Gayle’s career has been plagued by injuries since, including at the Tokoyo Olympics in 2021 when he failed to make the final eight.

Gayle looked very confident throughout the competition yesterday as he registered a mark of 7.51m. He shared that he was quite pleased with his efforts because this is a good stepping stone for him going into his indoor meet in Birmingham, England, next week.

“For the most part I have been working on my legs — especially my left leg — but in terms of injuries, there is no one [injury] currently,” said Gayle.

“It is the first time that I am going on the chevron because, for the most part, I have been training on the grass, and so coach didn’t want me to go into Birmingham with little to zero experience, and so… It is very important that I get my jumps in today, because I have not been training on the chevron as we are still doing the technical part of training, so today was mostly like a stepping stone to see what we can do next week,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Kingston College’s Antonio Forbes continued his excellent season after he won the Boys’ Class One 400m hurdles in record time of 52.11.

He erased the previous time of 52.41 which was set by his schoolmate Romel Plummer in 2019.

Forbes’ teammates Diego Stewart (52.55) and Shamari Jennings (53.25) were second and third, respectively, in the timed final event.

Holmwood Technical’s Annalice Brady won the girls’ equivalent in 1:00.01, in front of Edwin Allen’s pair of Tonyan Beckford 1:01.45 and Natasha Fox 1:02.43.

Cindy Rose from Holmwood shattered the Girls’ Class One 1500m record with a time of 4:44.53, eclipsing the previous time of 4:51.71.

Her teammate Andrene Peart, who also dipped below the record, was in 4:49.41 while third went to Holy Childhood High’s Jeneail Henry in 4:49.80.

Keitho Downer from Calabar captured the Boys’ Class One 1500m event in 4:13.30. Vere’s Daniel Barton was second in 4:13.47, followed by Carlos Brison from Calabar who took third spot in 4:14.87.

— Robert Bailey