FROM THE PUBLISHER

STEADILY
JUMPING
MEET TISSANA HICKLING
By: Hubert Lawrence
When Tissana Hickling steps forward
to jump, something happens. “When
I’m on the runway, I’m different”, she
confessed on a rainy afternoon at the
National Stadium East field. “I’m a very
jovial person but once I touch that
runway, my face gets serious”, she selfreported.
“Then you can know”, the
19 year-old St Jago High School jumps
lynchpin said, “that’s Hickling.”
When you confront Tissana with her
Champs results history, her countenance
also changes. It mirrors the surprise
and satisfaction she feels about
her steady improvement. Ottey-like in
body structure at 5-9 and 133 pounds,
she managed, “Looking from Class 3 at
5.45 and now at 6 for Class 2 and now
I’m at 6.39, so it’s a big improvement
for me.”
“I’m very surprised”, she said modestly.
St Jago jumps coach Kurt Brooks
knows why Hickling has made such
big strides. He likens her to the incomparable
Usain Bolt. “Her attitude, her
work ethic, everything that sums up for
a good athlete”, he analysed. “Look at a
Usain Bolt. You know Glen Mills talks
about it, his attitude towards the training,
his attitude towards competition,
so forth”, he outlined. “She is basically
the female Usain Bolt”, he lauded, “but
a jumper not a sprinter.’
This year, she has improved again and not
just in the long jump. A focus on speed has
yielded personal bests in the 100 metres, the
100 metre hurdles and all the jumps. While
she has lost twice in the triple jump, to Myesha
Nott of Rusea’s at the Carifta Trials and
to Edwin Allen’s Lotavia Brown at the Youngster
Goldsmith Classic, she did win a Central
Championships long jump/triple jump double
of 6.33 and 13.29 metres.
To cast aside the doubt created by the absence
of wind readings at Central Champs,
she also has a Carifta Trials jump of 6.23m and
that new personal best of 6.39m at the GC
Foster Classic.
Despite a flashy 100 metre time of 11.78
seconds at the Camperdown Classic, she is
focused on jumping and isn’t tempted to try
the sprints or the heptathlon.
“Last year, Champs was very surprising for
me”, she reviewed, “because I expected to take
the long jump and the triple jump but unexpectedly,
I didn’t.” Those titles went instead
to the outstanding Samara Spencer of Hydel
High School but Hickling isn’t bitter. “I still
give God thanks”, she said, “but this year I’m
more focused and ready so I’m going for the 2
records this year.”
2013
HICKLING AT CHAMPS
2014
Those marks stand at 6.52 metres in the
long jump and 13.63 metres in the triple and
Brooks thinks they are within reach. “She’s in
that frame of mind right now”, he evaluated.
“All being well, all being equal at Champs, she
should have a good Champs.”
This late starter was a hurdler first but St Jago
head coach Keilando Goburn made a shrewd
decision during her Class 3 days. “I was doing
hurdles one day and my coach said I should
go over to Mr. Brooks”, she remembers, “so
from that I just got adapted to all the jumping
and when I went to Champs 2013, I saw that
I actually had potential where the jumps are
concerned.”
She came to St Jago by chance. Goburn first
saw her during a visit to a coaching colleague
at Portsmouth Primary. “I saw this tall girl
towering about everybody, putting her toes
in her mouth and I asked him about her”, he
related of his first sight of her amazing flexibility,
“if she does athletics, and he said no, he
has actually been trying to convince her parents
to get her to come out.” Goburn made
the contact with them and the rest is history.
According to the head coach, “Tissana
Hickling is one of those special athletes who
2015
2016
CLASS 3 CLASS 2 CLASS 2 CLASS 1
Long Jump 5.45 (3 rd ) 5.77 (3 rd ) 5.95 (1 st ) 6.06 (2 nd )
High Jump 1.65 (4 th ) 1.70 (4 th ) 1.70 (3 rd )
Triple Jump 12.96 (2 nd )
6