SANTIAGO, Chile – Kai Chang comes into the men’s discus throw at the Pan American (Pan Am) Games looking to prove that he has what it takes to represent Jamaica at the Paris Olympic Games next summer.

He will likely have to better his season’s best of 63.57m if he is to take his first major gold medal since becoming the World U-20 champion in 2018, especially as he will be up against his national teammate and Pan Am Games defending champion Fedrick Dacres, who has thrown the discus a distance of 68.57m already this season.

But Chang is full of confidence and relishes the opportunity to push himself against one of the best in the region, with whom he is also good friends.

“I expect stern competition from all my opponents,” Chang told the Jamaica Observer after a training session on Saturday afternoon. For Fedrick being my teammate, I’m just happy to see him and happy for him competing with me once more.”

It has been a trying year for Chang, recovering from a knee injury the previous season and missing the team to the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last summer. But he did make a podium, at the World University Games in Chengdu, China. There, a throw of 61.82m earned him a silver medal. This was in part due to the work he has done with new Coach Eric Werskey since moving to the University of Florida to study for his master’s degree.

This meant leaving Julian Robinson’s camp, where he trained with Dacres.

“Me leaving the camp of Julian Robinson, being in Florida now with my new coach, Eric Werskey, has been a great experience,” Chang said. “But I do miss the camaraderie at home so considering that, I’m just happy to be here in the same competition around him again.”

Although Jamaica has a small track and field team at the Pan Am Games, its throws contingent has strong hopes of medalling and is seen as one of its deepest areas. Medals in the throws are highly probably for Jamaica and Chang says being crowned Pan Am champion is a feat he would value.

“Personally, I think it means a lot, considering we’re going into an Olympic year,” he said. “These big stage competitions will help also to accumulate a lot of good points going into the Olympics and trying to put myself in a good position to qualify and be in a good position to go forward. So it would mean a lot.”

Chang is still acclimatising to frigid conditions in spite of it being spring at this time of the year here. But that has not prevented him from being upbeat about the environment.

“It’s very cold here, but generally it’s a decent experience,” he said. “I like the environment. The stadium has a decent ring, so I’m looking for some good performances going into the competition.”

The discus event at the Pan Am Games features just a final round of competition. It takes place on Monday, the day Jamaica’s participation in athletics begins, at 7:30 pm local time, 5:30 pm Jamaica time.

Jamaica was active in one event at the Pan Am Games on Saturday. Its women’s football team played its final Group A game of the competition. The Reggae Girlz, who were already eliminated after a 7-0 loss to Mexico on Sunday and a 10-0 loss to Paraguay on Wednesday, went down 6-0 to the hosts on Saturday.