SANTIAGO, Chile —While Kai Chang is happy for the opportunity to have participated in a men’s discus throw final at the Pan American Games on Monday, he is disappointed at how the circumstances leading up to the event affected his performance.

Chang, making his first senior national appearance for Jamaica outside of the World University Games last summer, finished sixth in the event with a distance of 59.96m.

His national teammate and defending champion Fedrick Dacres took the bronze medal with a distance of 61.25m. The event was won by Chile’s Lucas Nervi, who threw the discus 63.39m, while Colombia’s Mauricio Alexander Ortega claimed the silver with a distance of 61.86m.

Chang, like Dacres, said he could have achieved a farther throw if he had got enough time to settle and prepare for the start of the competition.

“I’m extremely disappointed,” Chang told the Jamaica Observer. “Fedrick would’ve mentioned that the conditions were not favourable for us. We met in some unfortunate circumstances coming here, we were supposed to leave on the five o’clock bus, we’d been on the bus since 4:55, it left at 5:45.

The Athletes Village, located in the district of Cerrillos, is roughly a 50-minute distance, without traffic congestion, from the National Stadium, located in the district of Ñuñoa, but the athletes were travelling during peak hour traffic. The event was set to start at 7:30 pm, local time. However, athletes have to be at the call room 45 minutes before the start of the event. They are then allowed to go through their warm-ups. Chang says they arrived at the National Stadium about five minutes before the final started. That caused them to miss the final call, leading organisers to assume they did not show up.

They also had problems communicating their situation to the officials.

“The language barrier also created a disparity and it made it difficult for us to communicate when to leave, and worse, we didn’t have any connection for Wi-Fi. There were a lot of issues trying to get here.

“Looking up at the screens and seeing our names listed as DNS (did not start), it was kind of disappointing,” he said. “But getting in, getting to compete, getting to make the final is nothing short of God’s grace, because based on the conditions, we weren’t supposed to be there in the first place. So I am happy that I got the chance to compete once more, happy that I got the chance to complete my season so I can prepare for the Olympics this year.”

Although Chang’s distance did not clear 60m, he is capable, having thrown 63.57m at the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association National Senior Championships in July and a personal best of 64.49m in 2021. He is convinced that he could have thrown that far again had the environment been different.

“I just wasn’t warm enough,” he said. “The conditions were not favourable for me. I blame my preparation for the competition, because, technically, I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of good things, but in the competition those things just weren’t connecting because of how I felt, physically speaking.

“I wasn’t prepared and that’s just really it.”

Chang is remaining optimistic about the upcoming season, saying the opportunity to go to the Paris Olympic Games will motivate him to give better performances.

“I’m not discouraged,” he said. “I’m still encouraged to make my mark on the world stage once more. I just believe that barring these hiccups and barring all unfortunate circumstances, I should be in a place to conquer the world.”

But he is happy to have been able to compete with the best in the region and promises to push them more next season.

“I’m really happy for the Chilean, he got a season’s best, and I’m really happy for Fedrick to get a medal,” he said. “I wanted to be on the podium as well, but, you know, every dog has their day. These are athletes that I’ve competed with before, so I’m happy to be competing with them once more.”

Chang, who previously trained with Dacres under Coach Julian Robinson while at The University of the West Indies, is now pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Florida. There, he is coached by Eric Werskey.