Richards wins Jamaica’s first medal at 2025 World Indoor Championships

High jumper Raymond Richards won Jamaica’s first medal at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, securing bronze on the opening day of competition on Friday.

The 23-year-old Richards, who had never competed at a major senior international championship, was the surprise package of the final, clearing 2.28 metres to finish third on countback.

Korea's Woo Sanghyeok won the gold medal, etching his name in the history books by claiming his second world indoor high jump title, three years after his first triumph in Belgrade.

With this victory, he becomes only the third man to win multiple titles in the event, joining world record-holder Javier Sotomayor and Sweden’s 2004 Olympic champion Stefan Holm, both of whom hold four titles.

The 28-year-old secured gold by clearing 2.31m on his first attempt, the only athlete to achieve that height. Defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Hamish Kerr took silver with 2.28m, edging Richards on countback.

Five of the 13 finalists bowed out at 2.20m, among them European indoor silver medallist Jan Stefela and Jamaica’s 2023 NCAA champion Romaine Beckford. Two more athletes – Japan’s Naoto Hasegawa and Israel’s Jonathan Kapitolnik – exited the contest at 2.24m, leaving six men to try for 2.28m.

Only world leader and European indoor champion Oleh Doroshchuk and Jamaica’s Richards had managed to clear 2.24m on their first attempts, giving them a slight advantage over, Woo, Kerr and USA’s Elijah Kosibah.

Italy’s Manuel Lando was next to bow out, but the five other men went clear at 2.28m. Woo and Kerr did so on their first attempts, while Richards and Kosibah needed two tries each.

With just a slight brush of the bar, Woo got over 2.31m on his first try to equal his season’s best and take the sole lead. Kerr came close but was ultimately unsuccessful in getting over the bar as he was forced to surrender his title to the Korean.