RICHARDS SOARS
• Jamaican earns second high jump bronze at a World Indoors • Smith, Lyston, Prince just miss podiums, disaster for 4x400 mixed relay team • Alfred claims another global medal for St Lucia
Published:Sunday | March 22, 2026 | 12:06 AMGregory Bryce - Staff Reporter
Jamaica earned its third medal at the World Athletics Indoor Championships yesterday when Raymond Richards claimed the bronze medal in the men’s high jump on day two at the Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena in Torun, Poland.
Richards claimed the bronze medal after he cleared a season’s best height of 2.26 metres.
Romaine Beckford, the other Jamaican in the field, finished joint-ninth with a day’s best of 2.22.
It is the second bronze medal in Richards’ senior career, as he also won bronze at last year’s World Indoors.
He finished joint third with South Korea’s Sanghyeok Woo, who also cleared 2.26, while the title went to Ukraine’s Oleh Doroshchuk, 2.30, with Mexico’s Erick Portillo taking silver with the same clearance.
Doroshchuk was awarded the title on countback.
Jamaica narrowly missed out on a medal in the women’s 60m after Brianna Lyston and Jonielle Smith finished fourth and fifth, respectively, with times of 7.05 and 7.06 seconds.
Italy’s Zaynab Dosso took the title in 7.00, ahead of Jacious Sears of the United States, 7.03, and St Lucia’s Julien Alfred, 7.03.
The Jamaican pair booked their spots in the final by advancing through the rounds in professional fashion.
In the first round, Smith topped heat three in 7.13, while Lyston took heat six in 7.06 to advance to the semi-finals.
Lyston finished third in a stacked semi-final one with a time of 7.05, which was enough to advance as a non-automatic qualifier.
Smith, on the other hand, topped semi-final three in a personal best, 7.03.
It was a similar story in the men’s 60m hurdles, as Jamaica missed out on a medal by nine-thousandths of a second when Demario Prince finished fourth in the final.
Jamaica’s pair of Prince and Jerome Campbell secured safe passages in round one of the event after they finished within the automatic qualifying spots.
Prince took heat one in a time of 7.58 while Campbell finished third in heat four with his time of 7.67.
Prince moved on to the final with a time of 7.53, finishing second in his semi-final, while disaster struck for Campbell who hit a hurdle in his race and was eventually disqualified.
In the final, Prince recorded a new personal best of 7.43 to finish fourth, tied with USA’s Trey Cunningham.
Cunningham was awarded the bronze medal as he crossed the line nine-thousandths of a second ahead of Prince.
Jakub Szymański of Poland took the title in 7.40, while Spain’s Enrique Llopis was second in a national record 7.42.
There was drama in the mixed 4x400m final as Jamaica, who initially finished third with a time of three minutes, 17.13 (3:17.13), were disqualified from the event after a lengthy review.
The team was found in violation of Technical Rule 24.22 which relates to baton exchanges after a mishap on the first exchange.
Belgium took the World Indoors title in a time 3:15.60, ahead of Spain, 3:16.96, and Poland, who were upgraded to bronze, in 3:17.44.
Shantae Foreman finished 17th in the women’s triple jump with her day’s best of 12.35 metres.
Natoya Goule-Toppin failed to advance from the women’s 800m semi-finals after her time 2:00.69 saw her finishing fourth in semi-final three.
Navasky Anderson also failed to advance to the men’s 800m final when his time of 1:46.65 landed him third in semi-final one, just outside the top two qualifying spots.