Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment wins shock Men’s 110m hurdles Gold

On Aug 5, 2021

TOKYO, August 5 – USA’s World champion Grant Holloway was made to eat humble pie as Jamaican Hansle Parchment pulled off a surprise gold medal in the Men’s 110m hurdles final of the 2020 Olympic Games track and field competition continued at Olympic Stadium here today.

Parchment maintained Jamaican track supremacy by clocking 13.04 seconds to win the gold medal in 110m hurdles to take the Olympic title.

A hamstring injury prevented him from competing at the last 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and returned to competitive action in April 2017. Within four years, the 31-year-old hurdler came out with his most memorable moment in life.

He went past pre-event favourite Holloway, the American world champion and second-fastest man ever in the event, to spring one of the biggest upsets of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

After starting well in the beginning, Holloway was run down over the final two hurdles, finishing with 13.09 seconds to take only the silver medal. Ronald Levy, Parchment’s Jamaican teammate took the bronze medal in 13.10.

Parchment, came second in the 2015 world championships in Beijing and third at London 2012 but missed the 2016 Olympics due to injury, has now got the most precious collection to his trophy cupboard now.

“I don’t think a lot of people expected me to win, but I finally did that finally,” an elated new Olympic champion said after the race today. Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment wins shock Men’s 110m hurdles Gold

“It is the greatest feeling, the greatest feeling. I’ve worked so hard. It’s unbelievable that I caught Holloway. I’m really grateful. Certainly, there are so many here, Grant here for instance, and that’s a motivation for me. I even sat and watched other athletes to improve how I take my training times,” Parchment said.

Maintaining his customary beaming smile after the race, despite finishing second, Holloway expressed his happiness at winning an Olympic medal. Even though it wasn’t the result he had hoped for he said everybody knew that he was going to get out strong.

“Now it just comes to a point where I’ve got to finish strong. I did it once when I was two shaves (0.02s) off the world record so I know I can do it. I just think the nerves, the big atmosphere got the best of me a little bit. But I’m young, I’ve got a lot of races under my belt so I’ll take this with a grain of salt and I’ll keep moving forward,” Holloway said.

New chapter

Meanwhile, USA’s Ryan Crouser opened a new chapter in his legendary career, clearing a new Olympic distance of 23.30m with his last throw.

Compatriot Joe Kovacs won the silver with 22.65 while New Zealander Tomas Walsh settled for the bronze with a season’s best 22.47.

Reigning Rio de Janeiro Olympic champion threw a massive 23.30m in the Tokyo 2020 shot put final to win gold, becoming back-to-back Olympic champion and Olympic record holder in the process.

Reserving his best throw to the last attempt, Crouser had a final throw that was only seven centimetres shy of his 23.27m world record. But it was a full 78cm more than his Rio 2016 Olympic record.

Compatriot Joe Kovacs, the reigning IAAF World champion, took the silver with a throw of 22.65m with New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh winning bronze with a throw of 22.47m.

Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo won the Olympic triple jump title with a best leap of 17.98m, a national record today. The 28-year-old set his best mark in round three.

Yaming Zhu of China took silver with a personal best jump of 17.57m, while Burkino Faso’s Hugues Fabrice Zango secured the bronze with 17.47m – his country’s first Olympic medal.

The much looked forward to the 100m men’s and women’s relay finals together with the women’s 400m final will take place on Friday (6) evening.

Jamaica, sans retired world record 100m champion Usain Bolt for the first time, warmed up for the final clocking a season’s best 37.82 seconds in today’s first heat. In second place was Great Britain (38.02), followed by Japan (38.16) and France (38.18). The heat went on super highway as the first six countries registered their session’s best timings.

The other 4x100m heat was won by China with a season’s best 37.92 seconds. In second place was Canada clocking 37.92 photo finish, also a season’s best. In third place was Italy clocking 37.95, followed by Germany in 38.06.

Jamaica, Canada, Great Britain, China, Italy, Germany, Ghana and hosts Japan have qualified to run in tomorrow’s men’s 4x100m finals.

The women’s 4x100m heats too were worked off today with Great Britain, USA, Jamaica, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and China advancing to tomorrow’s final.

Great Britain shattered a new national record time of 41.55 seconds in winning heat one, followed by USA (41.90) and Jamaica (42.15) – both season’s best. In the women’s 4x100m heat worked off today, Germany clocked season’s best 42.00 seconds to finish first, followed by Switzerland (a national record of 42.05) and China (42.82).

Allyson Felix, the 35-year-old veteran of five Olympics winning six gold medallists who switched on to 400m for 2016 Rio de Janeiro winning the silver, will face a tough task in her quest for a medal in tomorrow’s 400m final.

After making debut with a 200m silver in Athens 2004, Felix will be at her farewell Olympics hoping for another medal in Tokyo. But the hot favourites to win the title are world no 2 Shaunae Miller-Ulbo of Bahamas (with a season’s best 49.08) and world no 3 Stephanie Ann McPherson of Jamaica (who had a personal best 49.34 this season).