Tajay Gayle

Tajay Gayle (born 2 August 1996) is a Jamaican long jumper and the 2019 World Champion.

Tajay Gayle

Gayle in 2019
Personal information
Born	(1996-08-02) 2 August 1996 (age 29) Kingston, Jamaica
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[1]
Sport
Country	Jamaica
Sport	Track and field
Event	Long jump
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	Long jump: 8.69 m 100 metres: 10.13 s
Medal record Men's athletics Representing  Jamaica World Championships 2019 Doha Long jump 2023 Budapest Long jump Diamond League 2024 Brussels Long jump Pan American Games 2019 Lima Long jump NACAC Championships 2018 Toronto Long jump 2022 Freeport Long jump
Updated on 21 August 2022

Biography

Gayle was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He is a graduate of Papine High School in Kingston and he is a member of the MVP track club. He is coached by Stephen Francis,^[2] who is the former coach of Olympic and World Champion Elaine Thompson-Herah. On September 28, 2019, Gayle became the first Jamaican man to win a World Championship gold in the long jump.^[3]

Career

He became an 8-meter jumper in 2017, improving from 7.54 m (24 ft 8+3⁄4 in) the year before. Gayle finished fourth at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and took the silver medal at the 2018 NACAC Championships, where he improved his personal best to 8.24 m (27 ft 1⁄4 in).^[4]

His current personal best is 8.69 m (28 ft 6 in), achieved on September 28, 2019, in Doha, where he became World Champion. He claimed the gold in an upset of the heavily favored Cuban long jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría. He also beat the 2016 Olympic champion Jeff Henderson and the 2017 World Champion Luvo Manyonga. His 8.69 m (28 ft 6 in) jump put him at number 10 in the IAAF all-time list.^[5]

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he got an injury at his first jump at the qualifying round. He managed to do a 8.14 m (26 ft 8+1⁄4 in) jump at his third attempt, then did 7.69 m (25 ft 2+3⁄4 in) at the final round to rank 11th.