Sakari Famous has beaten some of America’s best high jumpers in her first meet as a professional.

Famous equalled her national high jump record of 1.85 metres when coming out on top of a stacked field at the Ed Murphey Classic, a prestigious athletics meet in Memphis, Tennessee, named in honour of one of the state’s finest athletes.

The 26-year-old beat ten rivals to the gold medal and was pleased to see her training programme and hard work pay off with a victory.

“From my perspective, I was just very focused at the meet,” Famous said.

“I went in there with the objective of taking my training and what I have practised into competition. I wanted to use all my cues and to just take a moment and use it in a competition atmosphere. That was the main focus and it came out really, really nice with the result.

“What is really nice is that I am reaching the national record on a consistent basis and I can now say that it’s nice to see that as now an average. That means that there could be some higher heights in the future and I look forward to that.

Among Famous’s vanquished rivals was the 2026 NCAA champion Temitope Adeshina and a host of US professionals, making the victory all the more sweeter.

“All of them were pretty much professionals and a few of them are Nike-sponsored athletes and USATF champions.

“It was a pretty heavy field of Americans but it gave me an opportunity to know that I can put myself in that atmosphere, compete with them and even go higher than them.

“It allows me to know I am on the right track, can just continue my work, focus on my own jumping and my own goals and that could just lead me to where I need to be and what I need to achieve.”

The transition to the paid ranks is always tough to navigate and Famous is always at a deficit when it comes to sponsorship and help from outside sources.

“It is kind of tough, as most of the athletes I am competing against at these meets are sponsored and have stuff taken care of for them. I am chasing my dream and I’m going to keep believing that some day sponsorship could occur, whether that be from Bermuda or elsewhere.

“So I’m just continuing to work on that and hope that with my results and my work ethic, that a potential sponsor will take note and I can get some sponsorship in the near future.

“But it can be difficult as I know I have the potential to do good for myself and for my country.”

Famous will be representing Bermuda at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow at the end of this month. Like most athletes, she is focusing on the process rather than the expectation, but it is clear she is excited to compete on the biggest stage.

“I'm looking forward to focusing on my goals for this meet,” she said.

“That’s all I can do is just continue my preparation and just focus on my own route for the Commonwealth Games. But it’s just a great opportunity to again be on the world stage and representing my island again against some big countries.

“I did compete at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Championships last year and that was my first full year underneath my coach and we achieved some really good heights there. It also gave me the building blocks to want to continue to be in those big atmospheres.

“The last time I competed in the Commonwealth Games in 2022 was just a learning experience but I’m now fully focused on my preparation and we'll see what happens.

“I’m definitely just looking forward to just focusing on my journey, on the process and enjoying the Commonwealth Games.”

Famous was not the only athlete excelling last weekend, with Tatiana Sousa winning a silver medal at the NACAC Championships in Mexico.

Sousa threw 39.33 metres in the javelin to finish second in the under-18 girls javelin, with Kimberly Andrade taking gold with 42.86 metres. Sousa won silver in the under-17 girls javelin at the Carifta Games in Trinidad last year

Zydon Lightbourne Furbert made it into the 400 metres final in the under-18 boys, finishing sixth in a time of 48.27sec. Surii Russell finished fifth in his 400 metres heat in 49.99 and eighth in the 800 metres final in 2:04.73

Amara Samuels and Pria Wilson competed in the under-18 sprint distances, with Samuels finishing sixth in heat two of the 100 in 12.42 and sixth in heat two of the 200 in 25.14. Wilson was sixth in heat three of the 100 in 12.27 and sixth in heat one of the 200 in 24.97

Norre Robinson was the only athlete to compete in the under-23 age group and he finished fifth in heat two of the 100 metres in 10.67 and fourth in heat three of the 200 in 21.40.