SANTIAGO, Chile — Adrienne Adams may not have medalled in the discus throw final at the Pan American (Pan Am) Games on Monday but that did not bring her mood down after the final.

A throw of 55.55m meant she finished eighth, as her national teammate Samantha Hall took the bronze medal with a mark of 59.14m. Brazil took the gold and silver in the event with Izabela Rodrigues registering 59.63m for gold, and Andressa Oliveira taking the silver with a distance of 59.29m.

“I didn’t make the podium but I feel like I made it because Samantha is there — so, you know, one Jamaica,” Adams told the Jamaica Observer gleefully about Hall.

But she is taking positives from being in the final and gaining valuable experience from it. This follows her national debut at the Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador last summer where she won the bronze medal with a distance of 55.43m.

A farther distance with a lower finish means to her that she is getting to test herself against better opponents each time.

“I think this competition was more loaded,” she said. “All the competitors were close to 60m, so it was a crazy field — a field of very competitive women and I was blessed to be a part of it.”

Adams’ preparation for the Pan Am Games was disrupted by a back injury, from which she has not yet fully recovered.

“I had six weeks of training,” she said. “So, to come out here and produce 55m with that little training, it’s nobody but God. So, I’m beyond grateful, beyond happy.”

Adams, like her other Jamaican teammates, is finding the cold environment a challenge to prepare in.

“Oh, child,” she said with a joking shudder. “It was very cold, but honestly, Mr [Michael] Vassell [her coach] always told me not to think too much about what you can’t control, so being that it was cold, I was just trying to keep warm and do everything that I could to stay warm and compete to the best of my abilities and that’s what I did.”

Adams’ season is now over but she is giving thought to what she needs to do to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games next summer.

“I feel like this is a good place to be, especially it being in October,” she said. “It takes 64.5m to qualify [for Paris], probably 60m to have me in the world rankings, and to be at 55 now, it shows promise, so I’m happy.”

Adams’ personal best of 56.88m was set at the Pepsi Florida Relays in Gainesville, Florida, on March 31.