‘Right direction’
Sprint hurdler McLeod encouraged by back-to-back season’s bests
FORMER Olympic Games and World Athletics Championships gold medallist Omar McLeod said he is getting back to his best form.
He ran back-to-back season’s best times on his way to winning the 110m hurdles at the Paavo Nurmi Games — a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event at Paavo Nurmi Stadium in Turku, Finland, on Tuesday.
McLeod, who also won the World Athletics Indoor 60m hurdles title in 2016, ran 13.25 seconds (1.4m/s) in the final after he had run 13.29s (0.7m/s) in the first round — his fastest times in two seasons.
His times also put him between Rasheed Broadbell’s season’s best 13.24s and Olympic champion Hansle Parchment’s 13.26s as the top Jamaicans so far this year, with the National Championships set for next weekend.
McLeod was one of two Jamaican winners at the meet, with Shanieka Ricketts captturing the women’s triple jump with a best attempt of 14.17m (1.1m/s) while national record holder Brittany Anderson finished sixth in the 100m hurdles in a season’s best 12.87s (1.6m/s), after she had run 12.93s (1.1m/s) in the first round.
McLeod, who is based in Italy, was pleased with his form but hinted that he needs to check his speed.
“The hurdles were coming up very fast,” he said after the final. “Today I had a simulation of what it felt like to run fast again. The last two hurdles started to come up really quick. It’s the first time in a long time. I took a year off last year but this was the first time all season I felt what it’s like to run fast again.
“My body was like, ‘Oh snap! This is what it feels like; I need to react, I need to react.’
“I hit the last two hurdles really badly, and it took a lot of time off as I felt like I could run 13.00, but this is a step in the right direction. I feel very excited for the future. We need to be running fast at the right time so I am looking forward to what’s to come.”
McLeod, who has a personal best of 9.99 seconds in the 100m and held the national indoor 200m record of 20.48 seconds up to last year, said while he was expecting to run fast soon, he was not expecting to go so fast so early.
“We did 12 hurdles [in training] last week,” he said. “We started to get into the rhythm of it and coach said to get out and expect the hurdle to come up, but I did not expect it to come that fast.
“I got out, and the hurdles started to come up real fast so, like I said, it’s a step in the right direction. I’ve been there before, my body has been there before, so that was the wake-up call that I needed to be like, ‘Okay, that’s what it feels like at the last three hurdles.’ ”
Belgium’s Elie Bacari was second with a personal best 13.38s, with Finland’s Elmo Lakka third with 13.43s.
Anderson started well in both races but faded mid-race and was beaten in the final by the USA’s Nia Ali, who ran 12.48s to edge Nadine Visser of the Netherlands (12.51s) on the line, with Ireland’s Sarah Lavin (12.66s).
Ricketts got her best mark in the first round of the triple jump and had a second jump of 14.14m (1.6m/s) to beat Italy’s Dariya Derkach who had a wind-aided 14.08m (3.1m/s), with Sweden’s Maja Åskag third with a wind-aided 14.06m (2.2m/s).
