Caitlyn Bobb feels her decision to move to Virginia Tech has already been vindicated by her recent performances on the track.

Bobb, 21, picked up her first event win for the Hokies in the 200 metres and broke the Bermuda indoor national record over 500 metres at a meeting last weekend and is pleased with her form just months after joining her new school.

“I’m very glad that all of the hard work I did in the fall is coming to fruition,” Bobb said.

“Previously I was at UMBC and I felt like I needed a change of scenery, a change of team and a change of coaches.

“I don’t want to sound like I am bashing them but from a training standpoint and nutrition, they were a lower Division I college and they didn’t take athletics that seriously over there, they focused much more on academics.”

Bobb took advantage of the NCAA transfer portal, which has existed since 2018, to make the jump to VTech and was welcomed with open arms by her new coach and team-mates.

“When I hit the transfer portal Alan Dunson, my new coach at VTech, reached out to me and showed his interest,” Bobb said.

“He actually said he knew of me before but that I’d already committed to UMBC. After I made my visit here and saw the facilities, saw the campus and got to meet him and the team in person, I was already sold. They have everything here that you need to be successful.”

Record performances on the track come only after the hard yards are done away from it and Bobb was forced to work harder than before in the weeks after her arrival on campus.

“My fall conditioning season here has been like no other before it,” she said.

“At my previous institution, we would do a couple of stadiums, a couple of hills, but here I feel like I’m training for the military. It’s been brutal, 6am stadiums, 6am 400 metres, 6am hills, weighted vests and what we did was so unorthodox.

“It was horrible but I wouldn’t change it because I have seen a lot of success. I’ve been hitting PRs and even coming close to my outdoor times while I am still inside. I know that I am ahead of where I need to be and my outdoor season is going to be better than my indoor one.”

Bobb has been under the watchful coaching eye of her father David, who was the 100 metres NCAA Outdoor Championship runner-up in 1996 and is now head track and field coach at UMBC, but she is enjoying the freedom of being away from her family.

“My dad was never really my direct coach,” Bobb said.

“He was the head coach and if my event coach was not present then he would run training, but I kinda like not being with my dad every day.

“I’ve seen him for 18 years straight, so it’s refreshing to be on my own. I’m originally from Maryland and I’m now in Virginia. Being away from home, being solely on my own and doing well for myself, I like it more than having my dad around all day every day.”

Now happy with her life on and off campus, big things might be expected of Bobb this year but she has learnt not to get carried away by chasing fast times.

“Something I was taught a while ago but I am just understanding now as I am getting older is to solely trust your training,” she said.

“Don’t go looking for times because when you try to hit a specific time you don’t end up actually accomplishing your goal.

“What I’ve been focusing on now is competing, beating my rivals to win my overall event and executing. I did not aim to run the times I did last weekend but because I executed and competed, those times just came. My indoor goals are to win the Atlantic Coast Conference 400 metres and to make it to the finals in the 200 metres. My goals are not a time thing but a placement thing.”

Bobb competed for Bermuda at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and is hopeful of appearing again at the event in Glasgow next year. Now in charge of her own career, she is sure she will accept any offer she gets to represent the island.

“I’m my own manager right now,” Bobb said.

“My mum used to do it but she passed the baton on to me, so I’m still learning how things go, but whatever Bermuda wants to send me to, I think I’ll just end up going.

“I’m still trying to figure out the logistics because this is my last year of eligibility, so that means I may have to go to professional. I’m still trying to figure all of that out and if I should get an agent, so I’m working on a couple of things, but I feel like I’m ready to say yes to whatever Bermuda want me to do.”