Bright caps amazing year with Panam silver medal

Dec 08, 2021 Sports

Kaieteur News – US-based student athlete, Chantoba Bright has had an amazing 2021 which she closed off with a silver medal finish in her pet event; the women’s triple jump, in the inaugural Panam Junior Games that was hosted in Cali, Colombia last weekend.

Chantoba Bright

The Kansas State University student has won the National Junior Sportswoman of the year award before and after such a stellar performance she would definitely be in the running with many persons in the track & field fraternity already making some reasonable calls for such.
In response to public nomination, Bright shared with Kaieteur Sport that, “They are only advocating for me to win the national junior sportswoman of the year award because they think I deserve to, being that I’m the only athlete from several disciplines that has given Guyana any medal at the last games. In Ecuador, (South America Championships), I was the only athlete to medal in both events and then now at the first Junior Panam games in Colombia, creating history. So that’s two back to back games, I’ve represented Guyana well with a total of two silver medals in the triple and 1 bronze in the long jump.”
Although at the end of the year Bright can close off with some success, she mentioned that it wasn’t easy, “Well it’s been a tough couple of months for me, since summer I did a surgery on my jump leg one day after competing at the National Senior Championship in Guyana and I’ve been on the road to recovery ever since. I couldn’t do anything over the summer and I had gained a little weight so when I was finally able to train again in September, my roommate got covid and I was put in quarantine for two weeks. So I really resumed practicing at the end of September and by then I felt like I had lost too much and had to start from the ground up. All my teammates were ahead of me and I had to play catch up while playing it safe to stay healthy.”

Chantoba Bright in stride.

Bright continued, “I’ve only had like 6-8 weeks of training, generally just base work like strength and conditioning. My coach was a little worried about me doing a double championship for Guyana in the middle of the off season, especially since being healthy was our main focus as we looked forward to my senior season. My coach and I didn’t train for this competition just like we didn’t do any preparation for Ecuador but having coach Johnny (Gravesande) there with me really helped because he walked me through my jumps, especially when I was having trouble with my approach and we got to put in some last minute work which was major towards me achieving that silver medal.”
“I was sick for two weeks leading up to the day of my triple jump event so I was really nervous and a little stressed because I felt like I couldn’t catch a break these past months. The distance I jumped was a big surprise with the struggles I’ve faced for the last couple of months so this medal means a lot to me, and my coaches especially as I’m about to open my (NCAA) season on Saturday.”
In summary, Bright has been consistently improving this season despite setbacks. The Guyana National Champion has become All-American in both jumps over the indoor season with her best leap being .2m off Guyana’s national record. Also, she copped the silver medal at the Big XII conference and also made it to the NCAA National final for the first time in her career.
In the outdoor season, she made it to the NCAA regional finals and improved her PR to 6.49m which is 0.1m off the goal that was set for the year.

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