Omar McLeod took Jamaica’s dominance of the sprint events to a new level on Tuesday (16 July) when he clinched his country’s first ever gold medal in the Olympic Games men’s 110m hurdles.
With triple Olympic 100m champion Usain Bolt and newly-crowned women’s sprint champion Elaine Thompson leading the way, Jamaica has become the biggest global power in short distances on the track. But until Tuesday at the Olympic Stadium in Rio, the country had never produced an Olympic champion in the men’s or women’s high hurdles.
McLeod changed that with a confident, flowing performance. The 22-year-old Jamaican was comfortably ahead after the last hurdle and finished in 13.05 seconds, ahead of Spain’s Orlando Ortega and France’s Dimitri Bascou, who clocked 13.17 and 13.24 respectively.
McLeod crosses the finish line first (Photo: Getty Images/Ian Walton)
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