THIS HAS BEEN one of the most spectacular seasons in history for the high hurdles — even with Olympic gold medalist Grant Holloway absent due to suffering a torn hamstring in March. Ja’Kobe Tharp claimed the WR, Jamal Britt has emerged as one of fastest and most prolific performers on the circuit and Kendrick Smallwood and Trey Cunningham joined the sub-13.00 club. But one athlete who had been conspicuously absent from the headlines was the reigning world champion.
Coming into the Nationals Cordell Tinch had precisely 1 win in 8 high-profile races dating back to May. Nine men had run faster than his season best of 13.06. (Not that 13.06 is slow, but when your PR is 12.87 and the WR is now 12.75, expectations tend to rise!)
The Green Bay, Wisconsin, native made a giant stride towards changing the narrative with a dramatic win at Icahn Stadium, coming from behind off the final barrier to edge upstart Bradley Franklin in a new yearly best of 13.00.
One who was not concerned with Tinch’s lackluster results prior to Randalls Island was Tinch himself. Given that there was no global championship to peak for, he decided to ease into the season.
“I’ve definitely had a lot of fun this year, just due to the fact that you gotta relax. Coming off winning Worlds there’s a whole lotta pressure, but I don’t have to defend it right away,” says the 26-year-old, who won last September’s WC title in dominant fashion. “If that was the case, I would’ve been mentally ready to do it, but to be able to relax, have some fun and still come out and compete is all I could ask for.”
Tinch admits that he wasn’t well prepared at the start of the DL season, finishing 2nd and 5th in two races in China won by Britt. And knowing that winning in Tokyo last fall had secured him an automatic spot in this year’s new Ultimate Championship had taken away any pressure to obsess over his WA ranking.
Having fun also meant getting back to the long jump, an event he abandoned last season. He improved his PR to 27-2½ (8.29) in February, then finished 6th at the USATF Indoor before heading back to the sandbox on Randalls Island. Three days before the hurdles were held, he finished 4th in the event, reaching 26-¾ (7.94). Tinch hadn’t intended to use all six of his attempts, but when it took a while to find his rhythm he kept going in the competition.
He believes “hurdles and long jump go hand in hand,” and doesn’t see the second discipline compromising his ability to succeed in the first. “Any meets that I do more than one event in I typically do better in both of them,” he says. “It’s just the way for whatever reason, that when I do more than one event, I have more adrenaline or something. Things usually go well when I do more than one.”
Could the long jump become more than just a side hustle? “I’m not afraid to say it, I’ve said it before, I confidently believe, if I put the same amount of time into the long jump as the rest of the jumpers, I’m the best long jumper in America,” says Tinch, who won the NCAA Div. II title in the event (as well as the high jump and hurdles) for Pittsburg State back in his breakout season in ’23.
But for now, the hurdles are his top priority. He was encouraged by his race in New York, which marked his first USATF title, even if Tharp, Britt and Cunningham skipped the meet. Trailing the entire way, Tinch blasted off the last hurdle to catch Franklin then executed one of the most perfectly timed leans you will ever see.
“Typically [the finish] is the better part of my race. This year it’s a little bit backwards,” he says. “I’m getting out well, but I’m not finishing very well. Today was just a matter of making sure I kept myself composed and ran my own race, didn’t worry about where anybody else was. As soon as I started reeling him back in, I knew that when we got to the line, I’d get there first.”
Now Tinch turns his focus to the remainder of the DL season and the season-ending UC. “We’re slowly getting to where we want to be,” he says of his form. “Every race is going to be fast. You have to be fast. That’s the reason why I got to make sure I’m getting sharper and sharper with each race going into Ultimate, because yeah, 13.08 is winning nothing anytime soon.”
