NANJING, China, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Jamaican long jumper Tajay Gayle continued his unbeaten run into the 2019 outdoor season as he rallied to take the victory with a last-round leap of 8.21 meters at the Nanjing IAAF World Challenge here on Monday.
The 22-year-old Gayle struggled to fine-tune to his best form in the first three rounds, only achieving 7.86m to rank fifth in all the seven jumpers. After an invalid jump in the fourth round, he leaped 8.03m with the fifth attempt to climb to the third place and successfully turned the table in the last round to wrap up his fourth victory since opening the outdoor season in April.
It was the second comeback win for Gayle in three days as the Jamaican also took the title at the Shanghai Diamond League last Saturday with a fifth-round 8.24m leap, two weeks after improving his personal best to 8.30m in Kingston.
China's Zhang Yaoguang and Gao Xinglong both achieved 8.10m and their second best jumps tied at 7.99m too. The 25-year-old Zhang, who was the runner-up at the Asian Championships in Doha last month, edged Gao with a thrid best jump of 7.98m to grab the silver.
The competition was staged outside the Wanda Plaza, a shopping mall in the downtown area of the city, as the Nanjing leg of the China Athletics Street tour, while the other 15 events of the Nanjing World Challenge will be held in the stadium of the Youth Olympic Park on Tuesday evening.
