COACH Kerrylee Ricketts says having won her first-ever Olympic medal in Paris last summer, triple jumper Shanieka Ricketts is now confident and focused on finishing atop the podium at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, next year.

The 32-year-old made history as the first Jamaican woman to win an Olympic medal in the triple jump, taking silver with a mark of 14.87m — her third-longest-ever — in August. Dominica’s Thea LaFond claimed gold with a personal best of 15.02m. Shanieka, a two-time World Championships silver medallist, had previously finished fourth in the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Kerrylee has expressed pride in his wife, Shanieka’s performance this season.

“For next year, the dream and the aim is for her to be out there performing at her best and to stay injury-free,” Kerrylee said. “She has already qualified for the World Championships in Tokyo so it is all about keeping her injury-free so that she will be ready for the National Championships and Tokyo — where we aim to be back on the podium and, hopefully, over 15m again.

“This season was rough for her but we are happy she finally made it onto the podium at the Olympics. It was her first Olympic medal, and we are definitely aiming to be on the podium [at the World Championships] again, hopefully bringing home a medal this time around.”

Kerrylee, head coach of Ricketts Performance Track Club in St Elizabeth, says the addition of 2019 World Champion long jumper Tajay Gayle will enhance the training environment for Shanieka and her national teammate Tissanna Hickling.

“It’s a big boost to have someone like Tajay, who has achieved on the world stage, in the programme,” he said. “It’s a confidence booster, and Shanieka is eager to get back to training and start preparing for Tokyo 2025.

“It’s always good to have other professional athletes in training. With Tissanna also there — although she hasn’t reached the podium yet — having them both with Tajay creates a group of three professional athletes, which I believe will elevate them.

“In training sometimes we have like testing — broad jumps, vertical jumps and these sorts of things — so from time to time it is good to set marks and boundaries for each other to try and break in training. It will encourage them and it will bring a friendly competition. Those are the types of stuff that we have been looking for, for quite some time.”