Guyana’s Doris strikes historic gold on the Gold Coast
Troy Doris hopped, skipped and jumped his way to a Commonwealth Games gold medal and leaped into the record books after winning the Men’s Triple Jump event yesterday in Australia.
On the penultimate day of the 21st edition of the prestigious Games being held on the Gold Coast, Doris produced the most memorable jump of his career, a season’s best 16.88m to catapult his name into the annals of history.
His winning performance earned Guyana its first global gold medal in a field event.
Guyana’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony bested a field of 10 other elite Commonwealth jumpers inclusive of Dominica’s Yordanys Garcia (16.86m) and Marcel Mayack (16.80m) of Cameroon who joined him on the podium.
The USA based national triple jump record holder (17.18m) joins Phil Edwards, Winfield Braithwaite and Aliann Pompey as the only gold medal performers for British Guiana/Guyana at the Games which was first held in 1930.
Edwards won the 880 yards event in London, England in 1934. Forty-four years later, Braithwaite boxed his way to a gold in the light welterweight class in Edmonton, Canada and Pompey won the 400m event in 2002 in Manchester, England.
Doris’ gold medal winning performance yesterday in the triple jump at the Commonwealth Games could potentially have positive ripple effects for Guyana’s athletics.
This is according to President of the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson who congratulated the 29 year-old for earning the first global gold medal for Guyana in a field event.
“His performance is really admirable and I want to congratulate him and his coach and the people around him for bringing such glory to Guyana,” said Hutson yesterday.
“What he would have done is put Guyana a bit more on the map in the senior competitions. This is going to make our work a little easier for sponsors to come on board to help in the development of track and field because of our performances on the big stages.”
On the penultimate day of the 21st edition of the prestigious Games held on the Gold Coast, Doris produced the most memorable jump of his career, a season’s best 16.88m to catapult his name into the annals of history.
Guyana’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony bested a field of 10 other elite Commonwealth jumpers inclusive of Dominica’s Yordanys Garcia (16.86m) and Marcel Mayack (16.80m) of Cameroon who joined him on the podium.
The AAG head concluded by stating, “We are showing progress now and I hope that the juniors at the CARIFTA Games level can transition as good to the seniors like Troy has.”
