BRONZE BRACE
McLeod, McDonald increase nation’s medal count at World Indoors
Jamaica added two more bronze medals on the second day of the World Athletics Indoor Championships at the Glasgow Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, on Saturday.
Quarter-miler Rusheen McDonald and long jumper Carey McLeod both finished third in their respective finals.
Both McDonald, who carved a huge chunk out of his previous personal best when he ran 45.65 seconds to rocket up the Jamaican all-time rankings to seventh best, and McLeod, who had a season best jump of 8.21m, just two centimetres from the gold medal, joined first-day bronze medallist Ackeem Blake as first-time global individual medallists.
The medal hunt continues on Sunday, the third and final day, with the women’s 4x400m relay team that will try to defend its title won two years ago, Megan Tapper in the women’s 60m hurdles, Kimberly Williams in the women’s triple jump, and Tissanna Hickling in the women’s long jump.
Also yesterday, Briana Williams and Shashalee Forbes failed to get past the semi-finals of the women’s 60m, Natoya Goule fell out of the women’s 800m at the semi-finals, and Damion Thomas and Tyler Mason both failed to get out of the first round of the men’s 60m hurdles.
McDonald, whose career was almost ended after suffering serious injuries in a motor vehicle accident in 2015, battled a strong field to finish third behind Alexander Doom of Belgium, who ran a national record 45.25s to win the gold medal, beating Norway’s Karsten Warholm, who ran a season’s best 45.34s.
The 31 year-old McDonald, the outdoor national record holder, went into the championships with a lifetime best 47.05 seconds for the indoor 400m and knocked off almost 1.4 seconds in three races over two days.
He first lowered his personal best to 45.86s in the first round and then 46.25s in the semi-finals, both on Friday, as he became only the fourth Jamaican man to win medals in the two-lap race, joining Devon Morris who won gold in 1991, Davian Clarke won silver in 2004, and Danny McFarlane, who took bronze in 2001.
McLeod’s bronze medal, which came in an event that saw the top three men separated by one centimetre, was sweet redemption after he missed a medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last year, on countback after he had the same mark as the third place finisher, teammate Tajay Gayle, who was sixth on Saturday, with a best mark of 7.89m.
Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou retained his title with 8.22m, just ahead of Italy’s Mattie Furlani on the countback with a better second jump.
It was Jamaica’s first men’s indoor long jump medal in 20 years, since James Beckford won silver in Budapest in 2004.
McLeod started with a foul then took his second jump while the pit was still being raked after the previous jumpers made a mark, but the attempt, 7.94m, was allowed to remain and took him to fourth place.
He moved up a spot in the fifth round when he got 8.21m and finished with another 8.00m effort.
“I think it was a matter of figuring out my running,” McLeod said. “It just took me a while to get going. I knew I had to come out here and do something special. I was just 1cm shy of that gold medal. But I’m so grateful. I’m kind of used to the pressure. I think I jump better under pressure.
“Whenever you want to see the best of me just put me under a little bit of pressure. That’s when I get going. This has given me a confidence boost coming up to Paris, especially as I’ll be coming out of these worlds and vying for a place. Now I need to go back to the drawing board and keep working and keep pushing.”
Williams and Forbes, who both got through the first round with little trouble finishing second in their opening races, both failed to get past the semi-finals of the women’s 60m.
Forbes ran 7.15 seconds for fifth in her semi-final race, 11th best overall, while Williams was fourth in her race in 7.19s, 14th overall.
St Lucia’s Julien Alfred, who attended St Catherine High and who flew the flag for the Caribbean, won her country’s first global track and field gold medal when she beat a strong field in the final, equalling the world lead with 6.98s.
Poland’s Ewa Swoboda, who also ran 6.98 seconds in the semi-finals, took the silver with 7.00s and Italy’s Zaynab Dosso was third in 7.05s.
Sprint hurdlers Damion Thomas (7.73s) and Tyler Mason (7.86s) both failed to get past the first round of the men’s 60m hurdles, while Goule-Toppin, who had run her first indoor 80m of the season in Friday’s first round, led for three of the four laps but ran out of gas and finished at the back of the field in 2:01.41 minutes.