American Cordell Tinch goes from the ‘couch’ to gold medalist in the track and field worlds

TOKYO (AP) – From “the couch” to a world champion.

That’s how American Cordell Tinch summed up his victory Tuesday in the 110-meter hurdles at the track and field world championships in Tokyo.

The “champion” part was easy to grasp, in plain view at Japan’s National Stadium.

The “couch” part – that was the three years Tinch took off from the sport to figure out if he really wanted to do this.

He got all his answers on the track, powering through Lane 7 in a time of 12.99 seconds to beat Orlando Bennett of Jamaica by .09 seconds. Another Jamaican, Tyler Mason, finished third. Tinch has the fastest time of the season (12.87).

He draped an American flag draped over his shoulders, took his victory bows and quickly gave his mother a shoutout into a television camera.

“Love you mom,” he said.

She earned the shout-out. In fact, Tinch credits both his parents for helping “me get back on my feet” during this absence from the sport, from 2019 to 2022.

“I had to take time to find myself as a man,” he said, running off jobs that included cellphone salesman, paper mill worker, laborer at a moving company – and some food delivery gigs.

“You know, all the fun stuff,” he said.

He pulled off his return running for Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. He recalled an indoor meet early in his time at Pittsburg that convinced him he needed to run.

“When that gun went off, that’s when I knew I was back where I was supposed to be,” he said a few days ago.

Tinch said the time away is a key reason the gold medal was dangling on his chest Tuesday, just below a brimming smile.

“So in three years to become the world champion – and best hurdler in the world,” Tinch said. “It’s been a crazy season and this is, hopefully, the first of many.

“Athletically I’ve always been that athlete I’m showing the world now,” he added. “But I don’t think mentally I was able to carry what I have to carry now. I had an entire country on my back tonight. If it would have been 2019, 2020 I don’t think I would have been able to handle the pressure, handle the lights.”