Photo: Fedrick Dacres achieved 68.88m at the 12th renewal of the King of the Ring meeting held on Saturday to improve on his world lead and National record throw of 68.67m done in January.
It is only February but Jamaica’s national record holder, Fedrick ‘Banjay’ Dacres, produced a second monumental performance and National record throw in the men’s discus event on the grounds of the Excelsior High school in Kingston, Jamaica. The Julian Robinson coach Olympian achieved 68.88m at the 12th renewal of the King of the Ring meeting held on Saturday to improve on his world lead and National record throw of 68.67m done in January.
Dacres, is flying high atop the world’s elite discus specialists finding himself owing two of top throws in the latest standings for 2017. The mark is awaiting ratification, before it replaces the current national record mark. Dacres is being followed by Spain’s Lois Martinez with 66.26m and teammate Traves Smikle with 64.64m.
Club mates Smikle, 61.98 meters and Chad Wright 58.50 meters were second and third respectively.
The 2011 World Youth Champion and 2012 World junior champion finished a disappointing 17th in qualifying at the Rio Olympic Games, but is gearing up for success at the upcoming London 2017 World Championships.
Dacres has bulked up significantly in the off-season and he told Yardie Sports, “Putting on weight and being able to move the weight really helps with getting the distances I have reached so far this year. I wasn’t expecting it (new national mark) but I am thankful all the same. I have lost little of my speed with the addition of the weight but I am trying to get it back.”
The 2015 World championship finalist finished 7th in Beijing will look to move six spots better this time around.
It was a good day for most of the throwers, especially the high school athletes, achieving good marks in their pet events.
Chief among those were Class One thrower Rojae Stona of St Jago, unleashing a 57.30 meters throw to secure the discus gold. Excelsior’s Phillip Barrett 51.45m and Calabar’s Kyle Mitchell 50.11 metres rounded out the top three.
Ralford Mullings of Kingston College secured a win in the Class Two equivalent with 41.25 metres repelling the challenge ,of Wolmerian Leonardo Newland 28.06m, and St Jago’s Kymali Blair, 27.97 metres.
On the women’s side, Edwin Allen’s Fiona Richards stole the show with 51.44 meters to win the Class 1 Girls equivalent. She was ahead of Gabrielle Bailey of St Jago (46.40m), and Tavia Ranger of Excelsior with 45.70 metres.
It was Edwin Allen again in the Class Two girls’ discus through Kimone Reid who threw 41.01 metres to defeat Marie Forbes of Vere Technical (40.11m), and Shania Scott of St Jago with 38.16 metres.
The men’s Javelin Open was won by Orlando Thomas of the University of Technology Jamaica (UTech) with a throw of 63.51 metres from teammate Ravion Ashman with 60.79m, and Elvis Graham of G C Foster College with 60.08 metres.
Kingston College’s Avel Denton won the high school event with a throw of 53.85 metres ahead of his teammate Donovan Thames 50.66 metres and third going to Kirk Douglas of Wolmer’s Boys’ with 45.50 metres.
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