Jamaica's young and promising triple jumper, Jaydon Hibbert, came agonizingly close to securing a medal at the Paris Olympic Games, finishing just shy of the podium in fourth place at the Stade de France on Friday.

With his impressive run of form coming into the global multi-sport showpiece, Hibbert was one of the favourites to earn a medal, but the 19-year-old, who looked a shadow of his usual bubbly self, fell short of the top three with a best leap of 17.61m.

The event was topped by Spain’s Jordan Alejandro Diaz (17.86m) ahead of Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo (17.84m) and Andy Diaz (17.64m). Cuba’s Lazaro Martinez (17.34m) was eighth.

No doubt Hibbert’s performance left him with a mix of pride and disappointment, as he entered his Olympic Games debut with high expectations after he consistently delivered strong performances throughout the season.

However, the fiercely competitive field in Paris proved to be a challenging environment, and Hibbert was unable to improve on his second attempt. His sequence also includes 17.31m and 17.53m, with his last three attempts having two failures, while he passed on the final attempt, which could be a signal that the jovial athlete might not have been in the best of health.

"It was a good championship, so firstly, I want to thank God for what He has done. To think that I almost boycotted the Olympics and now I am here today (Friday) standing on a fourth-place finish. I don't think many 19-year-olds can say they came fourth at the Olympics so I am grateful," Hibbert said shortly after competition.

"I got a hard fall on one of the jumps and I felt something so I kind of stopped the competition. Me and coach talked about it, and he was trying to influence me to go back, but I told him that coach, 'I have more years to come' so for now I am grateful for the fourth place, and so it is just the road to recovery from here," he added.

Defending 100m World Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce continued her spectacular start to the 2022 season with a dominant win at Saturday’s Paris Diamond League.

Fraser-Pryce ran her second sub 10.7 clocking this season, equalling her own world-leading 10.67 for victory ahead of Great Britain’s Daryll Neita (10.99) and Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou (11.01).

The eight-time Olympic and nine-time World Championship medallist previously ran 10.67 at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya on May 7.

Bahamian Olympic 400m Champions Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo both also showed good form to secure 400m victories.

Gardiner, who is also the defending World Champion, produced a typically easy display of running to win in a season’s best 44.21, ahead of the Dominican Republic’s Lidio Andres Feliz (44.92) and South Africa’s Zakhiti Nene (44.99).

Miller-Uibo, on the other hand, went out extremely hard in the first three quarters of her race before shutting down with about 50 metres to go, to win in 50.10 ahead of Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek (50.24) and Anna Kielbasinska (50.28).

Bahamian Devynne Charlton ran a season’s best 12.63 to finish second in the 100m hurdles behind Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan who did a personal best and African record 12.41 for victory. Great Britain’s Cindy Sember ran 12.73 for third.

Cuba’s Jordan Diaz Fortun (17.66m) and Andy Diaz (17.65) were the top two finishers in the triple jump ahead of Olympic Champion Pedro Pichardo of Portugal (17.49m).