Gordon wins high jump gold at Island Games

By Cayman Sports Buzz
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Updated: 8 July 2019

Louis Gordon won the first gold medal for the Cayman Islands at the XVIII NatWest International Island Games in Gibraltar with a top clearance 2.02 metres in the men’s high jump on Sunday, 7 July.

Gordon laid back as he watched much of the field get eliminated before showing what he could do at a windy Lathbury Sports Complex.

With the field narrowed, he cleared height after height with relative ease. When neither eventual silver medallist Benjamin Le Rougetel of Jersey nor Isle of Man’s James Margrave (bronze) able to clear the bar at 2.02m, Gordon opted not to go on with the title already in the bag.

Gordon easily clears one of his jumps

“It was a good competition, nothing too hard but it was a nice experience being in Gibraltar,” said Gordon, 19, who is coming off his final high school season in Jamaica when he won the Class 1 title with a 2.11m clearance competing for Kingston College.

Despite the swirling winds, Gordon said he was not bothered about the conditions. “The wind was actually at my back, so it didn’t really affect me. The rest of the week was very windy [and] cold, so I guess everything came together nicely,” he said.

Gordon gets set to clear the bar en route to a winning performance

Having finished one spot off the podium at the Carifta Games at home in April, Gordon was pleased to have a gold medal hanging around his neck this time around. “I really wanted to get the medal in Cayman, but altogether God is good and everything came together in time.”

The medal was Cayman’s 100^th gold since making its Island Games debut in Gotland, Sweden in 1999 and 238^th overall.