Seventeen years old Jamaican Jaydon Hibbert of Jamaica broke the World U20 Championship triple jump record on his first attempt leap of 56 feet, 8 inches (17.27) in the final and captured the gold medal with a two-foot improvement to his previous career best.
Hibbert who will be an Arkansas Razorback as a freshman this coming season was a silver medalist at this meet in 2021 as a 16-year-old. As a seventeen yrs old Hibbert upgraded to gold with an amazing distance as the second jumper in the field after a rain delay moved the start time of the event from 4:55 to 6 p.m.
Following his record leap, Hibbert improved his Jamaican U18 record and moved to No. 2 on the all-time world list, trailing a 57-1.5 (17.41) U18 world best by Fortun from 2018.
On the U20 all-time world list, Hibbert ranks as equal No. 8 with Cuba’s Cristian Napoles from 2017. Hibbert just missed the Jamaican U20 national record of 56-8.75 (17.29) set by James Beckford in 1994.
Beckford holds the senior Jamaican national record with a mark of 58-9.5 (17.92) from 1995. Hibbert now ranks as the No. 2 performer on the all-time Jamaica list with the No. 4 performance.
Hibbert also bettered his previous PR in the second round with a mark of 55-2.25 (16.82), and then passed his remaining attempts. India’s Selva Thirumaran finished as a silver medalist with a mark of 53-0 (16.15) while bronze went to Estonia’s Viktor Morozov at 52-11 (16.13).
