Triple jumper Hibbert skips indoors

Even though he won some important victories undercover last season, Jamaica’s triple jump crown prince Jaydon Hibbert is skipping past the 2024 indoor season. Instead, the second year University of Arkansas student will focus on outdoor competition, which begins in March and which comes to a climax this year at the Olympics in Paris, France.

Speaking at the Central Hurdles, Relays and Field Events meet at the G.C. Foster College for Physical Education and Sport on Saturday, Hibbert says his training has him right where he wants to be.

“I’m feeling really good. I feel I’m at the spot I want to be at right now even though I’m not going to compete indoors this year, but I’m just going to take it slow and get ready for outdoors,” he said.

That decision means that he will bypass the collegiate indoor circuit and the World Indoor Championships, scheduled for March 1-3 in Glasgow, Scotland.

After an injury disappointment at the Budapest World Championships left a bitter taste on a breakthrough season, he and his Arkansas coach, Travis Geopfert, are being deliberate.

TRAINING GEARED TOWARDS OLYMPICS

“The Olympics, of course, that’s the main thing. You want to peak at the Olympics. I think my training is geared towards that, and we’re finishing the background part of training and getting into more reactive stuff soon, so just taking it stride by stride,” he added.

In his first year away from Kingston College, Hibbert set a world under-20 record of 17.54 metres and won the NCAA indoor crown. Outdoors, he did his personal best to 17.87m on May 13, the longest jump of the year, and led all qualifiers in Budapest with a strong effort taped at 17.70m.

That turned out to be longer than the gold medal jump – 17.67m – by Fabrice Zango of Burkino Faso.

His 17.87m is just five centimetres short of James Beckford’s long-standing Jamaica record of 17.92m. As such, Beckford and Hibbert are ninth and joint 14th on the world all-time performance list.

Once the NCAA season was finished, Hibbert, the 2022 World Under-20 winner, and Geopfert began work to extend the jumper’s run-up to gain more speed and momentum and more distance. According to Hibbert, that work will continue. They used a 12-step approach for most of the year but tried a 14-step version at the Jamaican Nationals.

“Last year was very much introductory. This year, he’s going to let me really take a try at the 14, get better at it and maybe play with the 16-step if I’m that strong and can control and still maximize the efficiency of the jump,” Hibbert explained.