Trinidad and Tobago’s Jehue Gordon is the reigning world champion in the men’s 400 metres hurdles and the fastest man on the planet this year at 47.69 seconds--the clocking he produced to strike gold in August at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, Russia.
But though he remains the toast of T&T as 2013 winds down, the 21-year-old hurdler understands that he is still in learning mode.
In a recent interview in Monaco with former T&T track star Ato Boldon, during the build-up to the IAAF World Athletics Gala, Gordon spoke about the challenges of his event.
“The 400-metre hurdles is not something that you could easily understand. It’s about rhythm. Sometimes you might get faster, sometimes you might get stronger, but it still doesn’t add up at the end of the day. For me, from 2009 up until now, it is still a learning process. It’s something that is going to take a lot of maturity, and I’m just having patience.”
At the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany, Gordon forced the world to sit up and take notice. Just 17 at the time, he finished fourth in the men’s one-lap hurdles final.
“In 2009, it showed that I had the talent, it showed that I had the capabilities, the physical attributes to be a force to be reckoned with in the 400-metre hurdles.
“In 2010,” the Maraval athlete continued, “I won the World Junior Championships, which is something I always wanted to do after not being able to make the final in 2008 in Poland. I made up my mind...’you know what Jehue, you need to go to the World Junior Championship final and bring it home for Trinidad and Tobago’. So did and so done.
“I continued training hard, and kept my eyes on the prize. I limited the distractions because training at home is not easy. A lot of people come towards you to try to rape the potential. When I say rape, I don’t necessarily mean it in a bad way. In track and field, we call it wagonists, bandwagonists.”
Following his golden run at the 2010 World Juniors in Moncton, Canada, Gordon suffered a setback.
“Coming off of 2010, I had a small surgery on the sole of my foot, but it was infected during the recovery process, so that kind of set me back. I wasn’t able to execute 2011 the way I was supposed to. A lot of people were like: ‘What’s going on with Jehue? After he showed so much promise in 2009 and 2010, what happened?’ But that phase was still a learning phase for me.”
And the learning continues, as Gordon strives to add to his global successes in 2010 and 2013.