Admitting that he is not quite sure how to describe his injury hit season so far, new national discus champion Fedrick Dacres is “feeling good” to have claimed his first national senior title in his pet event.
Throwing inside the National Stadium at the JAAA/Supreme Ventures National Athletics Championships, his first event in at least a month, the University of the West Indies student put together a string of five throws over 60m in his final sequence, to eclipse the event leader and national record holder Jason Morgan.
Speaking with reporters after his win, the former Calabar High athlete said, “I feel real good, because stadium is never really my place, so if I can PR in stadium I normally do well otherwise.”
With injuries figuring prominently in his season so far, Dacres is now looking to get things back on track.
“I need to get up back my strength and need to get more comfortable with my spin now because I have been out for a month or two based on my bicep strain, so it’s about getting back to where I was.
“When I threw 66m outside of stadium I actually came to stadium and throw 60. I threw 63 (63.23m) …so I really don’t know where I am at this point.”
Dacres believes he is passed the worst and is looking forward to good things happening for the rest of the season.
“The injuries are holding up fine so far I can’t complain, it hurts here and there because it’s getting pressured but I am ok with it so far.”
With three Jamaicans qualifying for the event at the World Championships, Dacres is hoping the discus will start getting more attention but is aware that a podium finish is required in China for the real breakthrough to take place.
“I believe that for us to get to the stage of the sprints, someone has to medal to kinda draw the attention away from sprints. Hopefully that can happen this year. I don’t know which one of us will do it but it needs to happen this year,” he suggested.
Currently at about 80% fitness, the former Champs stand out is hoping to be fully fit at the World Championships where he and two other former Calabar athletes, Jason Morgan and Chad Wright will represent the island nation.
If all three athletes can get to peak fitness in China, the bounty that Jamaica is looking to gain at the second time of asking inside the “Birds nest”, may not come only from the track as it did at the Olympics in 2008.
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