Fresh off a stunning personal best of 10.87 to win her 100m semifinal at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last weekend —making her the second-fastest Bahamian woman in history—Florida Gators star Anthaya Charlton has announced her decision to turn professional, bringing her collegiate career to a close.
“I am going pro this year,” Charlton confirmed in an exclusive interview with Sportsmax.TV. “I’ve signed already,” she added, though the identity of her sponsor has yet to be made public. “I graduated this spring. I was a senior in the classroom but a junior on the track, so I’ve already finished school.”
Charlton’s 10.87, which came with legal wind, trails only Chandra Sturrup’s long-standing national record of 10.84. It also marked a major milestone in what has been a breakout season for the versatile Bahamian, who also holds the Bahamian national long jump record at 6.98m.
“It just feels great to be a part of history, to be amongst the greats,” she said. “I’m high on a list that contains a lot of really great Bahamians. Overall, it’s just a great feeling.”
Perhaps more striking than the time itself was the way it felt. “I wouldn’t say I was surprised I ran that fast,” she said. “I always knew I was capable of it. I was more surprised by how easy it felt to run it. That’s what caught me off guard.”
However, in a fiercely contested NCAA 100m final, Charlton ran 11.19 (-1.4 m/s) to place fourth, just missing out on a medal behind USC’s Samirah Moody (11.136), South Carolina’s JaMeesia Ford (11.139), and LSU’s Tima Godbless (11.183). Charlton’s time was recorded as 11.189—just six-thousandths of a second outside the podium.
“I had a really bad start,” she admitted. “They called the race back and I think that threw me a bit. Plus, we had a headwind in the final. I just didn’t execute the way I did in the semis.”
Her ability to excel in both the 100m and long jump has sparked the debate of which event she'll ultimately focus on at the senior level. For Charlton, the answer isn’t simple.
“It depends on who you ask, honestly,” she said. “And it also depends on the day. Sometimes the long jump is my better event, sometimes the 100. But maybe the long jump—just because I like the fact that you get three to six chances to better your jump.”
With the Bahamas national championships and the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo fast approaching, she’s keeping her options open.
“I’ll be doing both events at trials,” she said. “But as of right now, there’s no firm answer on which event or events I’ll be doing at Worlds.”
Charlton’s meteoric rise is even more impressive when viewed against the backdrop of her early college struggles. As a freshman, she quit the sport altogether and forfeited her scholarship.
“Back home, I never took track seriously,” she admitted. “I’d show up to practice once or twice a week and just run, just because. When I got to a Power 5 school, the demands were so much more than I expected. I just couldn’t handle it—I wasn’t ready. I quit.”
It was during her time away from the sport that she came to a realization. “I started thinking about how much I loved the sport and what I was missing. So I came back my sophomore year, as a walk-on, and that’s when I started doing things right—training properly, going to rehab, lifting weights. That’s when everything changed.”
She credits much of her growth to her older sister, Devynne Charlton, a two-time World Indoor Champion in the 60m hurdles.
“Devynne absolutely was a huge inspiration. She’s a true testament of how hard work pays off. She made sure I was doing the right things and taking track seriously. I was the one who didn’t really care, but she kept me on the right path.”
Charlton has also undergone a significant physical transformation. “When I came into college, I was 105 pounds. I’d never lifted a single weight before. I started with a broomstick, just learning technique. I eventually got up to 115, then dropped back down over the summer. When I returned to Florida, I was 105 again. Now I’m 127—and it’s all muscle. We did a DEXA scan to confirm.”
Despite her youth, she’s already thinking about life after track.
“I’ve always said I want to go into coaching,” she shared. “Whenever I go back home and help out with younger athletes, that’s something I really enjoy. So after track, I want to coach. It still keeps me around the sport.”
Charlton also reflected on the consistent excellence of Bahamian athletes despite the country’s small population of just over 400,000.
“In my opinion, we lack the resources that the States have. So when we finally enter that environment, we’re still developing. We don’t peak early, we don’t burn out. That gives us more room to grow. For me, I wasn’t overdeveloped coming in, and that allowed me to be developed the right way.”
From a reluctant teen with raw talent to national record holder and professional athlete, Anthaya Charlton has rewritten her story with discipline, belief, and a deepening love for the sport. As she prepares for her for another major global championships as a professional, she stands not just as one of the Caribbean’s rising stars—but as proof that sometimes, the late bloomers bloom brightest.