Pinnock wins NCAA men’s long jump
OREGON, USA — Jamaica’s Wayne Pinnock of the University of Tennessee won the men’s long jump in dramatic fashion at Wednesday’s opening day of the four day NCAA Division One track and field championships at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Pinnock, who had won the NCAA Indoors in March as well as the South-eastern Conference (SEC) Outdoors titles, jumped 8.00m (-0.5m/s) with the final jump of the competition to beat Florida State University’s (FSU) Jeremiah Davis on count back as both athletes had the same measurement.
Pinnock’s second best mark was 7.96m which he did twice while Davis’ next best was 7.87m.
Meanwhile, three other Jamaican men, led by 800m runner Navasky Anderson of Mississippi State, qualified for their respective individual final on Friday’s third day. The women had their first day on Thursday with the final day set for Saturday.
On Wednesday, Pinnock, who had won bronze at the 2018 World Athletics Under 20 championships in Finland, led the competition up to the fifth round when he was passed by two jumpers from FSU, Davis and Isaac Grimes, before unleashing his dramatic last round effort.
Olympian Carey McLeod, also of Tennessee, was fourth with a best mark of 7.90m (0.1m/s) while Safin Wills of Purdue was 20th overall with 7.35m and Ryan Brown of the University of Arkansas was 24th with 6.80m.
Anderson, who became the fifth fastest Jamaican man over the 800m last month, when he won the SEC title, led the qualifiers in the 800m when he won his semi-final heat with 1:45.94 seconds. The former St Jago High runner needs to drop his time to 1:45.20 seconds to qualify for the World Championships at the same venue next month.
Jevaughn Powell of the University of Texas-El Paso was fourth fastest in the 400m, running 45.47 seconds, while LaFranz Campbell of Clemson University ran a personal best 13.48 seconds (0.4m/s) for seventh best in the 110m hurdles.
Former Donald Quarrie High runner Kenroy Williams of the University of Kentucky was 21st overall in the 400m hurdles in 54.74 seconds, hitting the ninth hurdle and falling before completing the race.
