Cordell Tinch is happier not being a race favourite but the American high hurdler might have to get used to it after his stunning run of 12.87 seconds at the Shanghai-Keqiao Diamond League.
The powerful 24-year-old’s time not only won him back-to-back Diamond League races in successive weeks but made him the joint fourth fastest man of all time in the 110m metres hurdles alongside 2008 Olympic champion Dayron Robles.
Tinch’s passage into the track elite has been far from orthodox, however, and for now he is content to concentrate on incremental improvements as he targets a place on the U.S. team for this year’s world championships.
“I’m just happy to come out compete again and honestly, just build off of last week. So as we continue to go through this season, I just want to get better each week,” he told reporters.
“Technically, last year was my first full season as a pro. They say, your first full year as a pro, it’s a learning process. You got to learn things. So there’s a lot of things that I had to learn.”