Top three long jumpers set for close battle at National Champs
The men's long jump at next month's JAAA National Senior Championships will attract a lot of attention as the trio of Tajay Gayle, Wayne Pinnock and Carey McLeod are expected to have a close battle.
All three have already attained the qualifying mark of 8.25 metres for the Budapest World Championships but bragging rights will be at stake where the winner will be crowned national champion at the July 6-9 meet.
Following his personal best of 8.37m at the South Eastern Championships/SEC/Championships in May where he won the event for the University of Arkansas, Pinnock is the top Jamaican and is also the defending national champion. He finished ninth at the World Athletics Championships last year and is ranked number three on the World Athletics top list so far this season .
McLeod upset his University of Arkansas teammate Pinnock to win at the recent NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas , with a season's best 8.26m. McLeod who represented Jamaica in both the long and triple jumps at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 has a personal best of 8.34m in the event and he will be hoping to once again get the better of his former Kingston College teammate to prove that his NCAA success was no fluke.
While both Pinnock and McLeod are the form athletes going into the Trials they could fall to Gayle, the country's record holder in the event. Gayle has not been at his best since injuring himself at last year's National Championships but the country's first World champion in the event, after his win in Doha in 2019 with an impressive mark of 8.69 metres, can top his rivals if he regains his best form. He achieved the qualifying standard for Budapest with his 8.26m effort last August in Italy and will be hoping to improve on his season's best of 8.12 metres.
A very exciting contest is expected in this event at the Trials and although he is still recovering from last year's injury, Gayle could stamp his class and do something special with a morale-boosting win heading into the World Championships.