Claye, who beat Taylor at the US Olympic trials, pushed hard to overturn Taylor’s advantage, fouling on a big third jump which nibbled the 18-metre line.
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American Christian Taylor retained his Olympic triple jump title with a season’s best leap of 17.86m.
The Fayetteville, Ga. native had the best jump of the day, jumping 17.24 meters.
A first-round jump of 17.86m proved enough for Taylor on Tuesday, with Claye improving his personal best by one centimetre to claim silver with 17.76m as Dong Bin of China (17.58m) took bronze.
There was some grumbling among observers that the triple jump final was held in the early-morning hours instead of in prime time.
In winning triple jump gold at the 2015 World Championships, Taylor came within 0.08 meters, or just more than 3 inches, of breaking the world record of 18.29 meters set in 1995 by Great Britain’s Jonathan Edwards.
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It was 1-2 again for the United States of America, the same as London, as teammate and fellow former Florida Gator Will Claye (17.76 ) took silver.
