James Beckford (born 9 January 1975 in
Saint Mary, Jamaica) is a
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
n
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
athlete competing in the
long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...
. He represented Jamaica at the Olympic level in
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
,
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
and
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
. He was the
silver medal
A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...
list in the long jump at the 1996 Olympics and also has two silvers from the
World Championships in Athletics
The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...
(from 1995 and 2003). He was chosen as the
Jamaica Sportsman of the Year The Jamaican Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year is an annual election, organised by the RJR Sports Foundation, which honours outstanding achievement(s) in sport by Jamaican athletes during the previous year.
List of winners
See also
*Athlete ...
for 1995, 1996 and 2003. He is the current holder of the
Jamaican record for the
triple jump
The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...
with a mark of 17.92 m, and was also the holder of the long jump record at 8.62m until 28 September. 2019 when it was replaced with a mark of 8.69 m by Tajay Gayle at the
World Championships in Athletics
The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...
in Doha, Qatar.
Beckford was educated in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and began his athletics career there, specialising in the horizontal jumps. He took the triple jump title at
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
's Class AAAA championship, representing
William R. Boone High School
William Rennick Boone High School is a public high school in Orlando, Florida. Built in 1952, the school is one of twenty high schools in the Orange County Public Schools system, created to accommodate the growing number of students at Orlando H ...
. He moved to
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
to study at
Blinn College. While there he improved
Delroy Poyser
Delroy Poyser (5 January 1962 – 11 February 2019) was a Jamaican long jumper, who won the gold medal for his native country at the 1982 Central American and Caribbean Games in Havana, Cuba
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capit ...
's Jamaican record with a jump of 17.29 metres (56 ft 8¾ in) – a mark which was also the world-leading outdoor jump at that point in April 1994.
His personal best of is currently ranked 15th on the
all-time list. Since he made that jump, 5 April 1997 in
Orlando, Florida
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...
, only 6 men have jumped farther.
He was banned from competition for three months in 1997 after he failed a drug test for
ephedrine, a banned stimulant.
He has competed at the World Championships on five occasions and the
IAAF World Indoor Championships on six occasions. Aside from his global performances, he has won medals at the
Summer Universiade, the
Goodwill Games
The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...
, the
IAAF Grand Prix Final, as well as a silver medal from the
1998 CAC Games.
He remains active, winning the
2018 World Masters Championships.
Achievements
See also
*
List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beckford, James
1975 births
Living people
People from Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica
Jamaican male long jumpers
Jamaican male triple jumpers
Olympic athletes of Jamaica
Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Olympic silver medalists for Jamaica
Doping cases in athletics
Blinn College alumni
Jamaican sportspeople in doping cases
World Athletics Championships medalists
Junior college men's track and field athletes in the United States
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field)
Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field)
Goodwill Games medalists in athletics
Central American and Caribbean Games silver medalists for Jamaica
Competitors at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games
Universiade silver medalists for Jamaica
Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in athletics
Medalists at the 1997 Summer Universiade
Competitors at the 1998 Goodwill Games
Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games
Goodwill Games gold medalists in athletics