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Parchment: Sprint hurdling competition a ‘big motivation’

Published:Thursday | August 12, 2021 | 12:08 AMRobert Bailey/Gleaner Writer
Hansle Parchment, Olympic gold medallist in the men’s 110 metres hurdles final in the Tokyo 2020 Games, Japan, leans to get a selfie with a fan during a motorcade in St Thomas on Monday. Parchment, who was accorded a hero’s welcome, travelled in a moto
Kenyon Hemans
Hansle Parchment, Olympic gold medallist in the men’s 110 metres hurdles final in the Tokyo 2020 Games, Japan, leans to get a selfie with a fan during a motorcade in St Thomas on Monday. Parchment, who was accorded a hero’s welcome, travelled in a motorcade from Yallahs to his home in Port Morant, with many stops along the way, including his alma mater, Morant Bay High School.

WITH THE huge depth and talent that Jamaica now has in the men’s 110 metres hurdles event, reigning Olympic champion Hansle Parchment said this will be an added inspiration for him to work a lot harder to secure a spot on the country’s team to next...

WITH THE huge depth and talent that Jamaica now has in the men’s 110 metres hurdles event, reigning Olympic champion Hansle Parchment said this will be an added inspiration for him to work a lot harder to secure a spot on the country’s team to next year’s IAAF World Championships.

The 31-year-old Parchment captured the gold medal in the men’s 110-metre hurdles in a season’s best 13.04 seconds at the Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan last week. He is the second-fastest Jamaican in the event this season and the third-fastest man in the world this year.

“That is a big motivation, to be honest. We see that hurdlers are getting a lot more competitive, and that will be a big help in pushing me to work a lot harder and to get to where I need to go,” said Parchment, while celebrating his Olympic achievement in a motorcade in his home parish, St Thomas, on Monday.

His Jamaican teammate, Ronald Levy, who took home the bronze medal in 13.10 seconds, is the third-fastest Jamaican and fifth-fastest in the world with a best time of 13.08 seconds.

Former Olympic champion Omar McLeod, who failed to make the country’s team to Tokyo, has run 13.01 seconds and is the fastest Jamaican this year and second-fastest in the world behind American Grant Holloway, 12.81 seconds.

“It is an exciting bunch of greatly talented athletes, and I really look forward to seeing Jamaica dominating the hurdles and we are just winning everywhere that we go,” he said.

Rasheed Broadbell (13.10), Damion Thomas (13.11), a semi-finalist in Tokyo, and Phillip Lemonious (13.21) are among Jamaica’s outstanding sprint hurdlers this season.

Parchment underscored that he is looking forward to the challenge of competing against his national teammates next season, especially at the National Championships, which will be used to select Jamaica’s team to next year’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

“There is no pressure on me, because I don’t look at it as that and I don’t think about it as that,” he said. “I have fun when I go out there, and I try to motivate all the other guys as well to give their best. And I let them know that it is not going to be easy, because I am not going to give them an easy race.”