Pinnock retains NCAA long jump title with world-leading leap

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CMC):

Jamaican Wayne Pinnock grabbed the long jump title with a world-leading leap at the NCAA indoor track and field championships last Friday in the United States.

The 23-year-old senior, who transferred to the University of Arkansas last year from the University of Tennessee, won his second NCAA indoor title, and the third long jump crown of his collegiate career, with a leap of 8.40 metres at the New Balance track.

Pinnock improved by six centimetres on the mark he posted in February that had tied him with Mattia Furlani of Italy for the world lead until Friday.

He became the eighth Razorback – the nickname for the athletics teams representing the university – to win an NCAA indoor long jump title and earned the programme’s 12th over the past four decades after Mike Conley became the first national champion.

It was also the second consecutive year a Razorback won the long jump at the NCAA meet after compatriot Carey McLeod, who also transferred from Tennessee to Arkansas, won the title last year as a senior.

The winning jump also equalled the Jamaica indoor record, matching the 8.40m achieved by McLeod and the iconic James Beckford.

Pinnock, a silver medal winner at the World Athletics Championships last year in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, logged leaps of 8.23m, 8.36m, and 8.29m in the first three rounds of the competition before he achieved his monumental mark on his fourth jump and fouled on his last two attempts.

Florida State senior Jeremiah Davis produced a season’s best leap of 8.20m to finish second, and Florida junior Malcolm Clemons was third with a leap of 8.11.