Caymanian athlete Ashantae Graham has claimed a new national indoor women’s long jump record during the 2026 British Universities and Colleges Sport Indoor Athletics Championships.
Competing at the English Institute of Sport Sheffield from 13-15 Feb., Graham recorded a distance of 5.62 metres, surpassing the previous record of 5.56 metres set by Anissa Owen in 2011.
The 22-year-old, who has been pursuing a master’s degree in sports therapy at London Metropolitan University since fall 2025, finished seventh overall in the competition and achieved a new season best.
Significant progress
This performance marks a significant progression in Graham’s British Universities and Colleges Sport career having represented her previous undergraduate university – the University of Birmingham – where she placed 16th in 2023 and 14th in 2025.
The record-breaking jump follows a period of recovery for Graham, who faced injury setbacks during the 2024 season.
“I’m genuinely very proud of myself for achieving that distance because, since 2023, I haven’t been performing at my best. I got injured and was out for half of the 2024 season, and I think that injury put me into a bit of a mental block,” Graham shared.
After moving to London last year, Graham began training under a new coach.
“When I decided I was moving to London to pursue my masters, I took a leap of faith and reached out to my current coach, Keith Fleming, to see if he would be willing to coach me. Right away, he was able to identify what was going wrong and why I wasn’t jumping to my full potential,” she said.
Graham said that her preparation with Fleming focused on physical conditioning and technical refinements, resulting in a 29-centimetre improvement over her previous indoor personal best of 5.33 metres.
“The first thing we focused on was getting me back into shape. Then we worked on improving my strength, followed by rebuilding my speed and most importantly, refining my technique. All the work we’ve put in has paid off, as I improved my indoor personal best,” she said.
Reflecting on the achievement, Graham says she is “very proud of that distance” but admits that she was also surprised by it.
“Before the competition, my coach told me I would jump either 5.60 metres or 5.70 metres. I was surprised for two reasons: first, that I was able to reach those distances again, and second, the scary accuracy of my coach.”
Optimistic for the future, Graham went on to say, “Of course, as an athlete, I still wished it had been further because my overall goal is to jump six metres. I didn’t achieve that during the indoor season, but that six metres jump will be mine in the outdoor season.”
Long jump versus sprints
Graham, who began athletics at 5-years old, admitted that she “actually didn’t like long jump” when she was younger.
“I mostly did sprinting (100 metres and 200 metres). I still competed in long jump even though I hated it at the time, but I wasn’t very good at it,” she said.
“However, in Year 5 at primary school, my PE teacher brought in a former coach from Jamaica to help with Inter-Primary preparation. He saw potential in my jumping and corrected my technique. From there, it really took off.
“Long jump became my favourite event, and I started performing better in it than in the sprints,” she added.
When starting university in 2023, Graham said, “I decided to take a break from sprinting and focus solely on long jump.”
“However, since training with a new coach this year, I’ve started to fall back in love with sprinting, so I might dabble in it again,” she said.
Despite the fluctuation of her love for long jump, the event has led her to achievements such as qualifying for four CARIFTA Games, securing a third-place finish at the 2023 Island Games, and establishing a new senior outdoor national record that same year.
Graham remains a member of local club FALCON Athletics and is coached by ‘Ms. Bent’ whenever she returns home during the holidays.
Building momentum
Since the 2026 has begun, Graham said, “I physically feel like myself again, only better. I’m stronger and probably the fastest I’ve ever been, and that is translating into my performances. I’m going to continue building on that to keep improving.”
She says that she’s “not quite at 100% yet” mentally but confirms that she feels “more confident and focused than in previous years” and trusts in her coach’s ability “to bring my focus back whenever it strays during training or competitions”.
Next on the calendar for Graham is the 60-metre at the Brunel Indoor Open on 25 Feb.
“At this [event], I’ll be taking a break from jumping and doing some sprinting. After this meet we [will] start our outdoor season,” she said.
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