Reigning World long jump champion Tajay Gayle received a bit of advice from the man considered the greatest long jumper of all time, Carl Lewis, after the Jamaican announced he would be adding the 100m to his schedule this coming season.

Just over a week ago, Gayle’s coach Stephen Francis, at the MVP Track Club, revealed that he expects Gayle to challenge Jamaica’s best sprinters in the coming season after recovering from a knee injury that prevented him from contending for a medal in the long jump at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in August.

Gayle, 25, suffered the injury during the preliminary round and just managed to qualify for the finals. However, once there he was unable to give his best effort because of the injury that had plagued him for most of the season.

However, Francis said he expects the athlete to be at his best for the 2021-2022 season.

“Tajay will be in a position to do a lot more sprinting this year and I expect that he will be good enough to challenge for the title of fastest Jamaican and defend his title as the best long jumper in the world,” Francis said of Gayle, who stunned the world with his leap of 8.69m to win gold in Doha in 2019.

Last season, Gayle improved on his 100m personal best of 10.42 from 2019 when he ran 10.18 at the National Stadium in Kingston in May.

On Monday, the former Papine High School athlete confirmed on Twitter that he was indeed running the 100m when he posted: “Well it’s official, I’ll be running 100m next season. Sigh, didn’t wanna do this to the sprinters but oh well. Wish me luck.”

Among the responses to his tweet was one from Lewis, who won Olympic long jump titles in 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996. The now 60-year-old American also won gold medals in the event at the 1983 and 1987 World Championships and a silver medal in 1991 when it took a world-record 8.95m from Mike Powell to defeat him in what was perhaps the most epic long jump competition in history.

“It definitely can be done, so I say to go for it,” Lewis tweeted. “Remember, the way to win two is to dominate one first.  My sprinting came when the long jump was rock solid.”

Gayle will attempt to defend his long jump title at the 2022 World Championships that will be held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, from July 15-24.