Wayne Pinnock - World record holder one day?

Undefeated since February, Wayne Pinnock of Kingston College has convinced many observers that he is a candidate for a medal in the long jump at next month's IAAF World Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland.

Among them is his coach Jeremy Delisser and a schoolmate who thinks that Pinnock will one day be a world record holder.

Since a loss to Daniel Bogle of Wolmers Boys' School at the Corporate Area Championships in February, the 18-year-old Pinnock has had an outstanding season. He jumped 7.96 metres, just three centimetres off his personal best, to place third in the senior men's long jump at last week's National Championships.

Delisser says the Boys and Girls' Championships and Carifta victor will step up his training when his school examinations are over.

HUNTING A MEDAL

Pinnock's task in Tampere is simple. "The goal now is to get to the World Junior Championships, make the finals of course, get the qualifying mark and then, from there, be in the hunt for a medal", outlined the coach, "and hopefully he will get a medal."

The 7.96 confirmed a mark of 7.99 metres Pinnock produced at the G.C. Foster Classic in March. Those big jumps have come in a season where the multi-talented KC boy has given up football. After he placed sixth at the 2017 World Under-18 Championships in Kenya, according to the coach, "the bug bit him and he came and said he was going to give me one year without football, which he has done, and the rest has been history."

That history includes breaking the 24-year-old Penn Relays record of 7.64 metres, belonging to Jamaican Maurice Wignall, with a leap of 7.88 metres. That prompted Wignall to predict that Pinnock could be the next great Jamaican long jumper. "I totally agree", Delisser concurred. He's not the only one. "A schoolmate of his was telling me, 'Sir, Pinnock one day will break the world record'", he related of a recent encounter at Kingston College.

No Jamaican has ever held a field event world record.

"For Jamaica, for field events in Jamaica, that would be a great achievement and obviously a tremendous boost", projected Delisser, who also coaches the jumpers at Edwin Allen Comprehensive High School.

Describing Pinnock as ''very talented'', he calculated, "We just want to take him stage by stage, slowly but surely get him there so that we can gradually build to where we need him to be."

Pinnock's jump of 7.99 currently places him in joint fourth position on the world Under-20 list.