National jumps coach Kerrylee Ricketts says former long jump world champion Tajay Gayle has more in the tank and that, once he stays healthy throughout the season, he will return to the pinnacle of the sport.

Gayle, who is the national long jump record holder, left the Stephen Francis-led MVP Track Club in September to join the Ricketts’ Performance Track Club, which is based in St Elizabeth.

Gayle won the gold medal at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar with a national record mark of 8.69m. His performance in Doha led many to believe he could challenge the world record mark of 8.95m set by United States’ Mike Powell.

However, he has struggled with knee injuries in the 2021 and 2022 seasons before returning to take bronze at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary behind teammate Wayne Pinnock and Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglu.

“The world record is a bit far off now, but in 2019 he had a big breakout year, one of the biggest jumps for years, and probably for over a decade, and that was good,” Ricketts said.

“He had an injury at one of the previous world championships and to come back from that and win a medal last year in Budapest was superb and this year, he finished the season by winning the Diamond League.

“It shows that he still has guts and he still has determination and the talent is still there and basically, I am just prepared to do my best to guide him to more success.

“Tajay, mentally he is ready to take on training and basically, he is prepared to head back to the podium for the World Championships coming next year in Tokyo.

Gayle did not qualify for the final at the Paris Olympics last summer but his winning Diamond League jump in Brussels, Belgium in September was a season’s best mark of 8.28m.

Ricketts has guided his wife Shanieka to silver medals at the 2019 and 2022 World Championships, as well as silver at the Paris Games. He is also the coach of Jamaica’s Olympic and World Championships long jump representative Tissanna Hickling.

Ricketts backs Gayle, 29, to return to his best, saying age is still on his side.

“Mentally, he is clocked in and ready to put in the work and physically he is solid,” Ricketts said. “We just basically will be putting everything to get him back on the podium and get him back to his best.

“Tajay is still young in the sport and I think he has a lot more years ahead of him and the only thing that we will basically have to do is to keep him injury-free and once he is injury-free I think his best is yet to come.”