THE country’s National Indoor 400 metres record-holder, Arinze Chance, is now the PowerAde sport drink Brand Ambassador, after inking his contract yesterday for an undisclosed sum at Banks DIH’s Thirst Park. Arinze will fancy his chances of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games this weekend at the AAG’s Senior National Championships.
“It’s just surreal to be in this position. It’s something that I would have dreamed about since I started track and field in 2004,” an elated Chance said after placing his ‘John Hancock’ to make his one-year partnership (so far) with Banks DIH official. “I just want to say thanks to all the parties involved. It’s definitely going to be a relationship that will be beneficial to both myself and Banks DIH, by extension PowerAde and the Coca Cola Company,” Chance said. Chance was a standout locally at the various age groups in the National Schools Athletics Championship.
He attended Bishops’ High, Queen’s College, the University of Trinidad and Tobago/University of South Carolina. While at the University of South Carolina, Chance was named in 2019 Indoor First-Team All-American (4x400m Relay), 2019 Outdoor First-Team All-American (4x400m Relay) and 2019 Indoor Second-Team All-American (400m).

Chance said his “athletic hopes would definitely be to go further than any athlete in Track and Field would’ve gone in Guyana’s history, but in doing that, I would need support. Banks DIH realised what I’ve done thus far, which is breaking the National Indoor 400m record and they’ve decided to partner with me and I’m much appreciative of that.”
He added that “all this time the support really has been coming from family and close friends and now having corporate sponsorship makes it easy to get through daily activities.”
The former University of South Carolina 400m student-athlete said the signing with Banks DIH/PowerAde should delight the “teachers, especially from Bishops’ High School, I know they would be proud to see that not only did I excel in my academic pursuits, but also in my athletic pursuits; I’ve been doing both my entire life and I’m happy to be in a position where I can say that it’s definitely possible to do athletics or any sport, and peruse your academics.”

Competing and being one of the best NCAA Division One 400m athletes off the track in the classrooms, Chance racked up an impressive resumé as well, becoming a 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-American and was on his University’s 2019 SEC Academic Honour Roll. He also made the 2017-18 SEC First-Year Academic Honour Roll.
Chance is the 2019 Aliann Pompey Invitational Champion 400m champion. Meanwhile, Jennifer Khan, Coca-Cola Brand Executive, hailed Chance as the “perfect signing” stating “he has a positive reputation with both the local and international target audiences, who are very interested in his career and his ambitions, his studies but more so his career as a sportsman”.
“He cares about his image and he’s always transmitting positive vibes … he’s just the type of person that we want on this brand and I’m happy that we have finally concluded this long process,” Khan said. In 1988, PowerAde became the official sports drink of the Olympics, alongside Aquarius, another sports drink made by Coca-Cola.
In July 2001, the Coca-Cola Company launched a new formula for PowerAde including vitamins B3, B6 and B12, which play a role in energy metabolism.