August 6th 2024.
In a thrilling display of athleticism, Jacob Fincham-Dukes of Team GB soared to a fifth-place finish in the men's long jump final. It was a well-deserved achievement, but for Fincham-Dukes, there was little time to bask in the glory. As a part-time athlete who receives no funding from British Athletics, he had to return to his full-time job just three days later.
Fincham-Dukes had to work hard to even qualify for the final, but he rose to the occasion on Tuesday with an impressive leap of 8.14 metres. However, it was defending champion Miltiadis Tentoglou who took home the gold with a mark of 8.48m. Jamaica's Wayne Pinnock and Italy's Mattia Furlani also secured spots on the podium with their impressive jumps.
What made Fincham-Dukes' performance even more remarkable was the fact that he is not a full-time athlete. Having moved to America to study at Oklahoma State University, he now works in health and safety compliance for a Texas-based company. This means that he has to wake up at 5am to train before heading to work, and then squeeze in more training in the evening after a full day at the office.
Despite these challenges, Fincham-Dukes was proud of his fifth-place finish and felt that he had done himself justice. In an interview with the BBC after the final, he said, "I really hope I've done myself justice because I work full-time. I'm back at work on Friday, so I'm carrying a lot of extra stress that these guys don't have to deal with. I've carried myself tremendously well this year, finishing fourth at Europeans and now fifth at the Olympics. I wasn't supposed to finish fifth based on rankings, so I think I've done myself proud."
But Fincham-Dukes was not the only Team GB athlete in action on Tuesday. Josh Kerr made headlines with his impressive performance in the men's 1,500m race, narrowly missing out on gold to American runner Cole Hocker. Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita also gave it their all in the women's 200m final, both finishing just outside of medal contention in fourth and fifth place respectively. It was a day filled with near misses and impressive displays of determination and skill from the British athletes.
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