At that point he was a little worried and tried to relax. Nieto said his was a little off and that he had to rely on his talent alone to clear 7-1 in the third attempt. It took him three tries to clear 7-3, as well. But he was the only one able to do so and won the competition. Nieto's troubles may be explained by the quality of the surface used in the competition.
Most venues boast a hard surface.
But the turf at Perry Field House is soft, so when Nieto planted his foot to jump, instead of going straight up, the turf gave, and he wasn't able to get as good of a jump. I felt good, but something was off today. Coach Bob Parks knew that the high jump venue was not very good. While Nieto was the lone vertical jumper to earn points, the horizontal jumpers cleaned up in both the long and triple jumps. Victor Nembhard, Juris Vaskans, Gerald Rasool, and Garfield Wright added 49 points between them.