…Bright sets ‘PB’ in Long & Triple Jumps

IT was a historic weekend for Guyana’s Track and Field athletes across the respective National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) conferences outdoor championships, with Chantoba Bright, Natricia Hooper and Kenisha Phillips leaving their mark.
Phillips won the 200m and 400m events for Austin Peay State University, while competing at the 2021 Ohio Valley Conference Outdoor Championships, hosted by Eastern Illinois at O’Brien Field. In the 400 metres, Phillips crossed the line in 53.47 seconds, and then returned to clock 23.35 seconds in the 200 metres.
In the process, Phillips became the first Ohio Valley Conference athlete, since Tennessee Tech’s Na’Asha Robinson in 2017 and 2018, to sweep both the 200m and 400m during the outdoor season.

Phillips is also the first athlete in her University’s history to win the 200m and 400m at the same outdoor Ohio Valley Conference Championship meet.
Meanwhile, Natricia Hooper erased Guyana’s 26-year-old National women’s Triple Jump record of 13.74 metres and replaced it with 13.92 metres.
Competing for the University of Florida at the South Eastern Conference (SEC) Outdoor Championships, Hooper finished third and bettered Nicola Martial’s June 3, 1995 record. In fact, the distance was good enough to become the University of Florida’s second best all time in the women’s triple jump.
Over in the BIG 12 Conference Outdoor Championships in Manhattan, Kansas, Chantoba Bright, though missing the podium, was able to set her personal best distances in the Long and Triple Jumps, securing fourth-place finishes in both events.

The lone Guyanese athlete at the university notched 6.47 metres in the women’s Long Jump, while over in the Triple Jump, she leaped a distance of 13.29 metres. Bright also recorded the sixth best mark in Kansas State University’s history in the triple jump event.
Joanna Archer, also competing in the BIG 12 Conference, finished 7th in the women’s 800M. Archer, suiting up for Texas Tech, ran two minutes, 08.44 seconds.
The athletes are gearing up for the 2021 NCAA Division one outdoor Track and Field Championships, which will be held from June 9 – 12 in Eugene, Oregon.