Jamaica’s Tajay Gayle remains on course to add another major long jump medal to his 2019 World title, as he progressed to the final of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games a short while ago.

Gayle, the national record holder at 8.69m, defied a knee injury to leap 8.14m on his final attempt in Group B. 

He was just shy of the 8.15m automatic qualifying mark but leapt far enough to finish third in the group and fourth overall heading into the medal event. 

Earlier, Gayle misjudged his second jump and landed awkwardly at 6.72m causing some damage to his left knee and seemed all but out of the event at that point.

However, through sheer determination the 24 year old had his knee strapped and returned shortly after to cut the sand at the competitive mark.

Meanwhile, Carey McLeod could only manage a best jump of 7.75m to finish 11th in Group A and failed to progress.