Tue | Sep 23, 2025

‘That was trash’

Distin in shock over no-height end to World Champs campaign

Published:Friday | September 19, 2025 | 12:13 AMKeith McGhie/Contributor
Jamaica’s Lamara Distin competing in the women’s high jump qualifiers at the Worlld Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, yesterday. Distin failed to clear the 1.83 metres opening height.
Gladstone Taylor
Jamaica’s Lamara Distin competing in the women’s high jump qualifiers at the Worlld Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, yesterday. Distin failed to clear the 1.83 metres opening height.

LAMARA DISTIN couldn’t hide her deep disappointment as she bowed out of the World Athletics Championships high jump competition at the first attempt.

Jamaica’s sole aspirant in the women’s vertical jumps struggled to get any rhythm and dislodged the bar on each of her three attempts at 1.83 metres, and her somewhat shock exit left her devastated as she exited Japan’s National Stadium.

The four times national champion, who was fifth in the final at her first global championships in Budapest two years ago, was never close to clearing a height she would usually clear off of her “short run-up”.

Frustrating season

Distin, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion from Birmingham, England, in 2022 and a regular 1.90m-plus jumper who has cleared two metres indoors, said that had now called time on a frustrating season and bluntly explained:

“That was trash - I have never no-heighted at a a major championship before!

“Going from the college season to the professional level, there are a lot of changes, and it has been rough, and training has not been going the way I wanted it to.

“It’s mostly just personal stuff.

“I’ve made the finals in Oregon and Budapest, so to come here and not clear 1.83m is bad, but I know next year will be better.

“There’s a lot of training that’s going to happen, so I’m happy about that.

“The height (1.83m) is something I would usually do from my short approach, so to not clear it on my long run-up is ... I don’t know!

“I have to get back mentally strong because the way the whole season has gone has affected me mentally, and that’s shown in my performance.”

When quizzed on the last time she has failed at such a relatively low height, the six feet four inches Distin shook her head and concluded:

“It must have been a long time ago as I don’t even remember.

“That’s it for this season, and I’ll come back better next year.”

Sixteen women, including world record holder and defending champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine, made it through to Sunday’s final, with the bar never reaching the automatic qualifying mark of 1.97m.