The photo above shows Donald Thomas clearing 2.35m during the final of
the mens High Jump at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka. That would
prove to be the winning height for Donald, who took the gold ahead of
Yaroslav Rybakov and Kyriakos Ioannou on the countback rule. It was a
remarkable performance from Thomas, given that he did not even take up
the sport until early 2006. His new career in the High Jump actually
came about by sheer chance; he was a basketball player at Lindenwood
University when one of his fellow pupils, who had seen Donald put on a
dazzling display on the basketball court, threw down a challenge that he
could not jump 6-6.
Thomas accepted the 'dare' and, sporting a pair of
baggy basketball shorts, promptly sailed over the height with his first
attempt. His gobsmacked pals raised the bar to 6-8 and then 7 feet
(2.13m) and each time Donald cleared at the first attempt. Needless to
say he was quickly added to the school team and just two days later
competed in his first official meet, winning with a remarkable clearance
of 7-3 1/4. Just two months later he was on his way to Australia as
part of the Bahamas team for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, only missing
out on a bronze medal on the countback rule. His amazing rise to
prominence continued with this gold medal at the Worlds and, in the
history of sport, there can surely be few stories to match Donald's in
terms of the sheer speed of his rise to world class. |