‘I am resilient’: Malone comes up short at World Champs, shifts focus to Olympics

The British Virgin Islands’ last hope of attaining a medal at the recently concluded 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, was shattered after long jumper Chantal Malone failed to qualify for the finals in her event.

Competing in Group A of the Women’s Long Jump on Saturday, October 5, Malone needed to equal or surpass the qualifying mark of 6.75 metres to make the final.

However, she fouled her first attempt, leapt to 6.21 metres on her second and finished with a final attempt of 6.45 metres. That performance saw Malone finishing 11th in her group and 22nd overall out of 31 jumpers.

Speaking after the event, Malone said she did not anticipate missing out in the finals.

“My training leading up to it has been one of the best seasons and best shape that I have been in. Going into the competition, my runups were great, the practice run-throughs were on target,” Malone said.

She, however, said that the first jump which had fouled subconsciously threw her off.

“You shouldn’t really change your mindset. You just want to go and attack it the same way because in my mind I thought I was doing the same thing but subconsciously you still want to play it safe because in the prelims you only have three jumps. So I think for the second one (jump) I definitely checked my self and held back way more than I should have and that put me in a bad position and the third one. I tried to go after it (the qualifying distance) and it just wasn’t enough,” Malone added.

Olympics will be special for me

The Pan American Games gold medalist said she will be putting this performance behind her and focus on conquering all competitions next year, including the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

She said: “It is a hard blow but I always bounce back and that’s something that I always pride myself on, being resilient and I’m going to go back and train like I have never trained before … and I know Tokyo is going to be something special for me.”

Malone is expected to return to the BVI on Friday, October 11, when officials will be hosting an athlete recognition ceremony for her recent performance at the Pan American Games.