THE RISE AND RISE OF DONALD THOMAS
Few athletes have reached world class quite as quickly as Donald Thomas (b. 1.7.1984) from the Bahamas. It was on Jan 19 last year that he tried the high jump for the first time.
Members of an American college track and field team challenged Thomas, a 1.88m (6ft 2in) basketball player, to jump 6ft 7in (2.01).
Still wearing his basketball shoes, and with no coaching or knowledge of the event, he proceeded to clear 7ft (2.13)!
That was just the start. Two days later he entered his first meeting and won with 2.22.
In March he made his international debut at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and despite wearing training flats and making up his approach run as he went he cleared 2.23 for fourth place, missing the bronze medal only on countback.
He improved to 2.24 in May but it was indoors this past winter that he soared to world class heights with 2.30 in January and 2.33 when winning the NCAA title in March – wearing pole vault shoes as he doesn’t like the spike in the heel of the normal high jump shoe. Watch this space for future developments!
POSTED IN ATHLETICS INTERNATIONAL E-NEWSLETTER.