Chanice Porter

It has only been a few months since 18-year-old Chanice Porter became a student at the University of Georgia yet she is already a champion. Porter on Saturday won the South Eastern Conference (SEC) long jump title with a strong series of jumps that peaked with a leap of 6.41 metres.

While nowhere near the SEC record of 6.91m set by her countrywoman Elva Goulbourne back in 2002, Porter won easily enough over Mississippi State's Erica Bougard 6.23m and Florida's Lorraine Graham.

She had gone into the championships fairly confident having had a successful debut season competing indoors. She won on debut at the Auburn Invitational in January and then again at the Arkansas Indoor Invitational a week later. However, she doesn't consider the SEC title an 'easy win' as she thinks that would be disrespectful to her rivals.

"I won't say it was easy because everybody came out there to win and everybody is making sure they put out their best but because I'm a fighter, I never give up," she said.

Porter, who is pursuing a degree in business, entered college coming off a fourth-place finish at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona and was perhaps expecting tougher competition. It's why the 2011 World Youth Champion concedes that it was a bit surprising that she was able to win the SEC title in her freshman season.

"Yes, it is (surprising) because this conference is one of the hardest conferences to be in and for me, a freshman to be ahead of everybody else not knowing anything about the indoors, it is surprising," she said. "To be so consistent indoors, I'm just looking to see what my outdoor season is going to be like."