Massive throws for Otabor, Hudson

Bahamian Rhema Otabor has now thrown farther than any Caribbean female athlete in history on the junior side in the javelin.

On top of that, she now has the fourth-best throw in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the second-best throw in the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) region and the fourth-best throw in the world on the junior side. She also recorded a new Bahamian junior national record, topping her own mark by a huge margin.

The 18-year-old freshman at Florida International University (FIU) did all of that with one throw at the Hurricane Invitational at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, 

Florida, on Saturday. Otabor, a two-time CARIFTA Champion, had a massive throw of 54.19 meters (m) – 177’ 9”  – to easily win the women’s javelin competition at that meet this past weekend. It was over six meters farther than her previous personal best throw.

Otabor’s other two throws in the competition were 50.04 (164’ 2”) and 49.28m (161’ 8”). She has now qualified for CARIFTA, the NACAC Under-23 Championships, the Junior Pan Am Games and the World Athletics (WA) Under-20 Championships.

“It feels great,” said Otabor yesterday. “I put in a lot of hard work and I got it. If you had asked me a week ago if I would have expected this, I would have said I’d probably throw a 51 at most, but after throwing 55.86 (183’ 3”) in practice, I kind of saw this coming. I’m just happy that I was able to throw so far and did it so soon. I couldn’t believe it at first, but it’s a good feeling. I wanted to throw far and was able to do so. I feel pretty good with my progression. I was able to get stronger and obviously I’m improving. I just plan to progress for the rest of the season, continue to get stronger and improve my technique and distance. I hope to throw about 59m (193’ 7”) by the end of the season.”

In just her first collegiate competition, Otabor won by almost 12 meters. Dina Cosic, a senior at FIU, was a distant second with a throw of 42.60m (139’ 9”). Katrina Grigorovica, a sophomore at FIU, finished third with a best throw of 31.84m (104’ 5”). The old junior national record was 47.95m (157’ 4”), done by Otabor at the T-Bird Flyers Track and Field Classic last year.

Also breaking a junior national record this past weekend was Tarajh Hudson in the shot put. Hudson had a throw of 16.10m (52’ 10”) at the Red-Line Athletics Classic at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium on Saturday, to easily win that event. The former junior national mark was 15.88m (52’ 1-1/4”) done by Drexel McIntosh at the CARIFTA Trials in New Providence, in 2015. Hudson has qualified for CARIFTA, the NACAC Under-23 Championships and the Junior Pan Am Games.

As for Otabor, she is coached by American Ryan Heberling at FIU and said she is grateful to him and the coaching staff at FIU for assisting in her development so far.

“When we recruited her, we figured there was a lot of potential there – her coach back home did a great job,” said FIU Head Coach Heberling. “The other day at practice, she almost threw 56m, so we knew there was a big throw in there. It’s exciting. It was huge.”

Locally, Otabor is a member of the Blue Chip Athletics Club that is coached by Corrington Maycock.

“This is something that a coach always wants – for an athlete to continue to progress and succeed. It’s a great feeling,” said Maycock. “The throws here in The Bahamas have been in the gutter for a long time, going back to the days of Laverne Eve and Bradley Cooper, but now we see that they are making a return. Last year, she (Otabor) threw close to 48, so I had her projected to throw 54 from last year. She is basically throwing now what I saw her throwing last year. From she first started, you could tell she was talented. You could see it before they could see it – how she conducted herself and just made it easy. To see how she matured as a thrower and developed is a good feeling.”

The CARIFTA Games and the World Athletics Under-20 Championships are just two days apart on the schedule this year, but Otabor said she still wants to go to both. The postponed CARIFTA Games is August 13-15 at the Bermuda National Sports Centre in Hamilton, Bermuda. The World U20s is August 17-22 in Nairobi, Kenya. Otabor became just the fourth Bahamian to qualify for the latter, with that massive throw over the weekend.

“I plan to go to both, hopefully get the CARIFTA record and then go after a medal at the world juniors,” she said. “I also want to do well in college – hope to win conference and regionals and make it to the NCAA Championships. I’m just going to go out there and give it my all.”

The CARIFTA record that Otabor is chasing is 51.13m (167’ 9”), done by Candesha Scott of Grenada in St. George’s, Grenada, in 2016.

“We’re going to look at the schedule and see if it’s doable for Rhema to go to both CARIFTA and the world juniors,” said Maycock. “If she throws on the first day of CARIFTA, she can leave the next day and we could plan accordingly. She would have to do probably just two throws at CARIFTA and then we could gauge how much rest she will have in between. Right now, Rhema is above the CARIFTA record, so we definitely want to give her the chance to go out there and get that record. Hopefully, she could do that while not exerting too much energy and then save the rest for the world juniors.”

Otabor thanked all who supported her on this journey.

“I’d like to thank my coaches here at FIU like Coach Ryan Heberling and Coach Swazi (Andreu Swasey), as well as my coach back home Coach Maycock for all the help to getting me where I am so far. I’d also like to thank those who support me like my wonderful parents and family, as well as my friends and teammates,” she said.

There were a number of other strong performances at the Red-Line Athletics Classic this past weekend. Next up on the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) calendar is the first of three meets being staged by Blue Marlin Management this year. The first meet is set for Saturday, March 27 at the Thomas A. Robinson Stadium, starting at 4 p.m.

Like all of the athletic events in the country so far for 2021, once again, there will be no fans in the stadium so as to conform to COVID-19 standards.

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