GUYANESE Olympian Troy Doris started off his season at No. 22 in the world in the Men’s triple jump, after he leaped 16.39m at the Mount Sac Relays last weekend in California.
The national record-holder placed second behind USA TF’s Donald Scott who covered 17.01m for the win. The performance marked a late start to the 28-year-old’s season, after he skipped out on the indoor events.
“I took this indoor season off to take a break really. I wanted to work on technique and work on my endurance and strength; plus there weren’t many triple jump meets during the indoor circuit,” the Sportsman-of-the-Year nominee said.
“Those are things you can always improve on and it’s those fine details that separate jumpers. The more consistency you have in your technique, you’ll have a better execution on each of your jumps. It’s important to have endurance because this allows you to maintain your stamina throughout the 6 rounds of the triple jumps.”
Doris’ next stop is the Drake Relays in Iowa, set for next week, while also on the cards are two Diamond League meets, next month: one in Doha, Qatar, and another in Eugene, Oregon. The meets are all a part of the Olympics finalists’ journey to meeting, or surpassing the 16.80m IAAF World Championships qualifying standard.
“My plans for this year are pretty straightforward. I want to have a better season than I had last season. My goal is to make the World Championship finals in London,” Doris explained.
Eight athletes have already made the mark for the event, with Cuba’s Andy Diaz leading the list with 17.40m. Last year’s Olympics gold medallist Christian Taylor is not too far behind, sitting in third, after the 17.26m he cleared earlier this month.
Doris, who has a personal best of 17.18 in the event, is shaking up his training regimen somewhat as he aspires to push himself even further this season.
“Not that last season was bad, but I just set a new standard for myself. I’ve taken a lot of time to reflect on last season and listed the elements of my training I’ve wanted to improve. Things I would typically focus on for a few weeks, I would focus on for a month (this season),” he explained.