OREGON, USA – Michael Andre Edwards thought he would be able to jump “about 16.80m” but surprised himself with a dramatic final round 17.08m (1.1m/s) leap to snatch the gold medal at the World Athletics Under- 20 Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Edwards, who started slowly, trailed his good friend American Miles Nesmith going into the final round, when he produced the jump of his life on the biggest stage.

After his dramatic win, he said he never expected he would be jumping this far this soon but never thought 17.00m was out of his reach.

He twice bettered his previous personal best of 16.30m set in July, with 16.71m in the fifth round and then his big jump a round later. He joins national under-20 record holder Jaydon Hibbert,17.87m, and James Beckford, 17.29m, as the only Jamaican juniors to jump over 17.00m in the triple jump.

Edwards is also the second Jamaican man to win the triple jump after Hibbert won it in 2022.

This was Jamaica’s first gold of the champions and third medal after Gary Card and Shanoya Douglas won silver medals in their respective 100m finals on Thursday.

Nesmith, who was second to Edwards at the Penn Relays in April, took the silver medal with a personal best 16.79m (1.0m/s) and China’s Zhuoyue Wang was third with 16.36m (0.9m/s).

Edwards, who needed just one jump, 16.00m, to qualify from the prelims, started slowly with a 13.76m (1.4m/s) but qualified for the final with a 16.23m (-0.3m/s) in the third round before he got into second place with 16.71 (0.5m/s) in the fifth round.

-Paul A Reid