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WHEN WORLD Championship discus throw silver medallist Fedrick Dacres failed to make the national team to the Olympic last year, he said it hurt, but after earning his spot on the team to the Tokyo World Championships in September, he said he hopes to leave a mark to remember.
“Coming fourth at trials I felt bad, but the lead-up to trials justified the placing. However, we sent the best guys at that time to represent, so I was good. The usual expectation [is] to finish in the top three,” Dacres told The Gleaner.
With his World Championships silver medal coming in 2019, Dacres said he is looking forward to this year’s staging.
“It’s as important to me as all of them. To be honest, I don’t try to pressure myself,” said the 31-year-old.
It might be a bit more difficult for Dacres to top the podium as a new world record in the event of 75.56 meters was achieved by Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania in April.
“I’m not intimidated at all because that really has nothing to do with me,” the former Diamond League, Commonwealth , and two-time Pan-American champion said.
Dacres, who is still the national record holder with a distance of 70.78 metres, said he is focused on keeping healthy.
“Just being smarter with training to remain healthy, but separate and aside from that, I’m pretty much doing the same things,” he said.
He said the performances by Jamaican athletes is something to embrace.
“We punching in the fields, man. The proof is in the pudding. I love seeing where we’ve come from to now having medals and records in a non-traditional sport and being feared. It’s just gonna get better,” he said about the four medals Jamaica earned in the field at last year’s Olympics.
“I loved seeing the guys representing well and young Stona punching the perfect day was just the icing on the cake. Loved to see it.”
A number of those Olympic medallists are now said to have switched allegiance to Turkey, including Olympic discus record holder and gold medallist Roje Stona.
Dacres joins this year’s national champion Ralford Mullings and Chad Wright on the national team for the men’s discus throw.
English (US) ·