Team GB athlete forced to return to day job just three days after Olympic final

After sneaking through qualifying, Fincham-Dukes raised his level in Tuesday’s final to finish fifth with an impressive leap of 8.14 metres.

Olympic gold was won by defending champion Miltiadis Tentoglou with a mark of 8.48m. Jamaica’s Wayne Pinnock came second with 8.36m and Italy’s Mattia Furlani took bronze with 8.34m.

However, the Brit’s achievement was all the more impressive considering he is only a part-time athlete and receives no funding from British Athletics.

Having moved to America to study at Oklahoma State University, Fincham-Dukes now works in health and safety compliance for Texas-based company ITN.

‘I’ve carried myself tremendously well this year. Fourth at Europeans, fifth at the Olympics.

‘I wasn’t supposed to finish fifth on ranking there so I think I’ve done myself proud.’

As well as Fincham-Dukes, several other Team GB were in action on the track on Tuesday, with Josh Kerr taking the headlines as he was pipped to men’s 1,500m gold by America’s Cole Hocker.

And there was more near misses for British athletes as Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita both narrowly missed out on medals in the women’s 200m, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

For more stories like this, check our sport page.