Hickling targets podium finish at World Indoor
Long jumper eyes Olympic Games qualifying mark
HAVING been selected to represent her country at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, Jamaican long jumper Tissanna Hickling is determined to secure a medal for Jamaica at the event.
The indoor championships is set for Glasgow, Scotland, from March 1-3.
The 26-year-old Hickling, who holds a personal-best mark of 6.68m, is coached by Kerry-Lee Ricketts at Ricketts Performance Centre based at St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) in Santa Cruz.
She told the Jamaica Observer her target for the indoor championships is to improve her personal-best mark in the event.
Hickling said that achieving the Olympic qualification mark of 6.82m at the World Indoor Championships is well within her reach.
“The aim is to get a medal at the World Indoors Championships and also to get the qualifying mark for the Olympic Games,” said Hickling.
“You can expect big things and great jumps and performances from me this season because I am working very hard to surpass seven metres,” she said.
“I am pretty much excited because this is my first World Indoor Championships after all these years trying to make the national team. It is now for me to go there and see where I am because my training has been going excellent. I am just focusing on going there and try to hit that qualifying mark at the World Indoors for the Olympic Games,” she said.
“I am in the margin of one centimetre that qualified me for the Olympic Games because I am at 6.85m now and the mark is 6.86m. So, it is just for me to get that one centimetre in,” the jumper added.
Hickling won the event at Saturday’s Gibson McCook Relays with a leap of 6.32m. She acknowledged the positive training environment at STETHS and Ricketts Performance Centre, expressing confidence regarding having a great season.
“I have been training with the STETHS athletes at the Ricketts Performance Centre and it has been going well because they have been learning a lot from me and I am also motivating them. So, there is a lot of positive energy and I am feeling very good at the moment,” Hickling said.
