By Rawle Toney

Fifteen-year-old middle distance athlete Janella Jonas returned to Guyana on Wednesday with a bronze medal after competing in this year’s South American Youth Championship in Peru on  November 29-30.

A happy Janella Jonas poses with her medal outside of Stabroek News on Friday.

Jonas won the medal in the 800 metres event where she clocked a time of 2:18:03s.

The race was won by Venezuela’s Roselbis Stormes (2:13.05s) while second place was taken by Natalia Oliveira of Brazil (2:17.39s).

Ricardo Martin of the Rupununi who was Guyana’s other representative at the championship and competed in the 1,500 metres event placing seventh.
Speaking to Stabroek Sport on Friday, the national athlete said that she was very happy with her performance in Peru since she trained really hard for the event.
“I am happy with how I ran even though I could have done a bit better, but it was still a bit difficult too for me because I had a problem breathing while I was running.

But the experience was good for me since I got a chance to run against some top athletes in South America and for me to finish third was great,” Jonas said.

The diminutive Rising Stars track club athlete, who equalled her personal best time which brought her gold at this year’s Hampton Games in Trinidad and Tobago,  said that she was  always happy to know that she could excel in running on a synthetic track since in Guyana athletes can only run on grass.

She thanked the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) for making her trip possible as well as her training partners and coach Leslie Black for her preparation.

Along with Jonas and Martin, the AAG’s General Secretary Pamela Phillips was the team’s manager and chaperone.

Brazil was the most successful nation at the championships winning a total of 54 medals (26 gold, 19 silver and nine bronze), followed by Argentina with 14 (6, 4, 4), Peru with 12 (3, 2, 7), Chile with 13 (2, 4, 7) and Venezuela with 13 (2, 3, 8).