(This story was updated to add a photo gallery.)
It wasn’t long ago that Cordell Tinch was selling cell phones and operating machinery that manufactured toilet paper back home in Green Bay. Today, he’s a world-champion hurdler.
Tinch, a Bay Port High School graduate, won the 110-meter hurdles in 12.99 seconds Sept. 16 at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
He finished ahead of Jamaica’s Orlando Bennett and Tyler Mason, who took silver and bronze.
Tinch, who once was AAU basketball teammates with future NBA star Tyrese Haliburton, set a state record in the triple jump during the WIAA state track and field meet as a junior in 2017 and threatened the state mark in winning the long jump, alongside second-place finishes in the 110 hurdles. He wasn’t able to compete in the 2018 state meet after an athletic code violation.
Tinch went to the University of Minnesota, looking to compete in both football and track, then followed the track coach to Kansas, where he won the 110 hurdles as a freshman at the Big 12 conference meet. When the pandemic dawned in early 2020, he left school and went home.
He installed cable for Spectrum, operated a toilet-paper machine for Georgia-Pacific and sold phones at a US Cellular store in Suamico.
In 2022, he gave track a shot again, competing at NCAA Division II Pittsburg State in Kansas. He rediscovered the magic and became a bit of an overnight success. Eventually, he came up just short in the 2024 Olympic Trials in the hurdles, finishing fourth even as he dealt with a hamstring injury.
This year, he had the world’s fastest time of 12.87 seconds, in May, and then he got a shot on track and field’s biggest stage in non-Olympic years.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Green Bay’s Cordell Tinch wins world championship in 110-meter hurdles
Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
