DESPITE losing his first triple jump competition in almost two years, since August 2021 when he was second at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, world leader Jaydon Hibbert was grateful after his first Wanda Diamond League competition in Monaco on Friday.

Hibbert was beaten on the final jump when Olympic Games medallist Hugues Fabrice Zhango of Burkina Faso pulled off a 17.70m (0.4m/s) effort to snatch the victory.

The two-time Jamaican champion had retaken the lead in the fourth round with 17.66m (1.7m/s), and then passed on his fifth round before managing 17.53m in his final round.

“It was a rough competition,” Hibbert admitted afterwards. “I got a little cramp but I came into my zone and I was okay. I was second, but I was super grateful at the same time. To represent my country is always a pleasure but I am very tired now. I am ready to go home right now.”

The 18-year-old University of Arkansas athlete, who is tipped to win a medal at next month’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, has been in a purple patch of success the last two years, winning 23 competitions including three indoors.

The last time Hibbert failed to win a triple jump competition was at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya in August 2021, when he placed second to Sweden’s Gabriel Wallmark.

Since then Hibbert has been on a tear, winning the World Under-20 gold medal last year, two Jamaican national senior titles, two Carifta Games Under 20 titles, the NCAA indoors and outdoors titles, the South-Eastern Conference indoors and outdoors, while breaking the world Under-20 indoor record with 17.54m — which is further than the outdoor mark of 17.50m.

Meanwhile, his outdoors personal best of 17.87m is yet to be ratified as the world Under 20 outdoor record.