By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
Christabel Nettey's Twitter account is @queenchristabel. It's a fitting handle for the unquestioned queen of Canadian long jumping.
Nettey, who grew up in Surrey, British Columbia, is one of just two Canadian women with an Olympic qualifying mark (6.50 meters or better) in the long jump (heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton is the other), making her a virtual lock to compete at the Summer Olympics next month in Rio de Janeiro.
The former Sun Devil set indoor and outdoor personal bests of 6.99 meters (indoors at the XL Galan and outdoors at the Prefontaine Classic in 2015). Both were Canadian records and she had six of the top 23 outdoor jumps in the world, all between 6.90 and 6.99 meters. She took first at the Pan-American Games and fourth at the World Championships.
The only potential hurdle for Nettey at the Canadian Track Trials (July 7-10 in Edmonton) is health.
"I've been injured four times this year," she said. "I had a hamstring issue in the fall, I had it again, I had a groin injury and then the hamstring again. Every time I felt I was moving forward I got stopped and I never really had a solid training block to get things right."
Nettey had been competing in Diamond League meets in Europe to "figure some things out," and experience some live competition because she believes she will need to exceed 7 meters to improve on her fourth place at the 2015 Worlds when she competes in Rio. The end of the Diamond League season was a relief, however, because it allowed her a solid block of time to train here in the Valley.
After she finished up at ASU in 2013, Sun Devils coach Greg Kraft told her she was welcome to continue training with the team, but she felt she needed to get out of the collegiate atmosphere and get into a pro atmosphere.
Then-ASU trainer Junko Yazawa referred her to Altis (then World Athletics Center), a Phoenix-based pro track training group, founded by three-time Olympic shot putter John Godina. Altis' staff includes Dan Pfaff, who coached 2012 Olympic men's long jump gold medalist Greg Rutherford, 2008 Olympic pole vault gold medalist Steve Hooker, and two-time British Olympian Steve Lewis, who placed fifth at the 2012 Games in London.
Nettey developed a quick friendship with Lewis that she said helped her training.
"Other than the pole, a lot of the techniques in pole vaulting and long jumping are the same so I got fed all this information," she said. "The center was so small that I could bounce ideas off people and absorb everything."
Pfaff tinkered with Nettey's technique to keep her healthy, improve her consistency and, as she said, "improve my body awareness throughout my jump."
Health permitting, Nettey is hoping to regain and surpass 2015's form when "things were just really easy and things were clicking" before the injuries.
"It's nice for me that the stress other people are feeling, fighting for a country's spot, is not there," she said. "I know that I am my own competition so for me, it's about being consistent and worrying only about myself.
"I can't believe it's 2016 already because it feels like we've been talking about 2016 forever and now I'm knocking on Rio's door. I've matured so much from college to pros and I feel like I'm pretty level-headed, calm and zoned in as it approaches. I'm ready."
Christabel Nettey's Twitter account is @queenchristabel. It's a fitting handle for the unquestioned queen of Canadian long jumping.
Nettey, who grew up in Surrey, British Columbia, is one of just two Canadian women with an Olympic qualifying mark (6.50 meters or better) in the long jump (heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton is the other), making her a virtual lock to compete at the Summer Olympics next month in Rio de Janeiro.
The former Sun Devil set indoor and outdoor personal bests of 6.99 meters (indoors at the XL Galan and outdoors at the Prefontaine Classic in 2015). Both were Canadian records and she had six of the top 23 outdoor jumps in the world, all between 6.90 and 6.99 meters. She took first at the Pan-American Games and fourth at the World Championships.
The only potential hurdle for Nettey at the Canadian Track Trials (July 7-10 in Edmonton) is health.
"I've been injured four times this year," she said. "I had a hamstring issue in the fall, I had it again, I had a groin injury and then the hamstring again. Every time I felt I was moving forward I got stopped and I never really had a solid training block to get things right."
Nettey had been competing in Diamond League meets in Europe to "figure some things out," and experience some live competition because she believes she will need to exceed 7 meters to improve on her fourth place at the 2015 Worlds when she competes in Rio. The end of the Diamond League season was a relief, however, because it allowed her a solid block of time to train here in the Valley.
After she finished up at ASU in 2013, Sun Devils coach Greg Kraft told her she was welcome to continue training with the team, but she felt she needed to get out of the collegiate atmosphere and get into a pro atmosphere.
Then-ASU trainer Junko Yazawa referred her to Altis (then World Athletics Center), a Phoenix-based pro track training group, founded by three-time Olympic shot putter John Godina. Altis' staff includes Dan Pfaff, who coached 2012 Olympic men's long jump gold medalist Greg Rutherford, 2008 Olympic pole vault gold medalist Steve Hooker, and two-time British Olympian Steve Lewis, who placed fifth at the 2012 Games in London.
Nettey developed a quick friendship with Lewis that she said helped her training.
"Other than the pole, a lot of the techniques in pole vaulting and long jumping are the same so I got fed all this information," she said. "The center was so small that I could bounce ideas off people and absorb everything."
Pfaff tinkered with Nettey's technique to keep her healthy, improve her consistency and, as she said, "improve my body awareness throughout my jump."
Health permitting, Nettey is hoping to regain and surpass 2015's form when "things were just really easy and things were clicking" before the injuries.
"It's nice for me that the stress other people are feeling, fighting for a country's spot, is not there," she said. "I know that I am my own competition so for me, it's about being consistent and worrying only about myself.
"I can't believe it's 2016 already because it feels like we've been talking about 2016 forever and now I'm knocking on Rio's door. I've matured so much from college to pros and I feel like I'm pretty level-headed, calm and zoned in as it approaches. I'm ready."