The Long Jump Journey of Kelsey Daniel

The only line that I could have used to summarise my conversation with Track and Field athlete Kelsey Daniel was " The future of Sports is in great hands"

Kelsey Daniel made the jump of his life and was able to capture Silver at the 2021 Junior Pan American Games and this blog is devoted to his story.

Daniel, 20 years of age, grew up in

Parlatuvier Tobago and is more so known for his accomplishments in Track and field. Introduced to Long Jump at the age of 10 and he was chosen to compete at the Tobagos' Zonal Competition and although he had his challenges when he initially began he stuck with it and began to progress really quickly.

Kelsey's goal is to make a professional career out of this and become a motivator to the youth of his country and by extension the rest of the world.

Leading up to his 2021 Jr Pan American campaign Daniel stressed his need to keep a "Positive Mindset" before heading on to the track, his first jump "wasn't my (Daniel's) best jump" in his opinion but after conversing with his coach he returned to the track and gave the performance of his life, with a distance of 7.9 meters to capture the Silver medal. Daniel also mentioned how much the support of his fans and the media coverage meant to him, giving him the motivation to only get better.

Kelsey Daniel at the 2021 Junior Pan American Games

Kesley's biggest Sport related goal is to become an Olympian and is diligently working towards the Paris 2024 Olympic game and deems it to be a "monumental milestone" in his track and field career. Kelsey also insisted on his cousin Tyriq Horsford, 2021 Jr Pan American Bronze medalist in Men's Javelin to being able to join him at Paris 2024, Horsford threw a distance of 71.33m to obtain TTO's first medal giving Daniel the motivation needed to obtain his. Daniel claims Hosford to be an exceptional athlete and his role model, Daniel's says that having him there's his support system will allow him to perform much better and in return, he will also motivate him (Horsford) to perform at his best.

Kelsey Daniel (right) and Tyriq Horsford (right)

Daniel also shared that his journey to success thus far was not the easiest and there were obstacles, having a performance block in 2015,2016 &2017 where he was unable to improve his performance and it was hard on him but after tying the "Triple Jump" event for a period of time he was back to the Long Jump in no time.

For those that haven't listened to the podcast episode just yet be sure to click the link to hear more from Kelsey Daniel.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3hNebxyV5BQIF51CcRwGGA?si=H71PPcpbTbS6IqtTEawpfg