Maurice Andre Wignall (born 17 April 1976) is a

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

hurdling Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today ...

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

. His first appearance in a major international championship was at the 1997 World Championships, where he competed in the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

competition. He jumped 8.09, which still stands as his personal best. Competing for the George Mason Patriots track and field team, Wignall won the 1999 long jump at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships with a jump of 7.96 m. Wignall's success in hurdling came relatively late. He took his first medal, a bronze medal, at the

2002 Commonwealth Games The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002, were an international multi-sport event for the members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Manchester, England, ...

. At the 2004 World Indoor Championships, Wignall won the bronze medal in 60 m hurdles which is the distance used indoor. Later that year he competed in the Olympic

110 metres Hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a rac ...

where he placed fourth in the final, missing the bronze medal by one hundredth of a second. In the semi-final he set a new national record with a time of 13.17. At the end of the 2004 season Wignall won the silver medal in the 2nd IAAF World Athletics Final. He also competed in Helsinki 2005, but finished seventh in the final. In March 2006 he won the gold medal at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

, with a time of 13.26, comfortably ahead of the rest of the field.

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