DESPITE not making it to the finals of the discus throw or achieving his goal of breaking his own national record at the 13th IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, Jason Morgan says he is more than happy with his performance in the qualifications earlier this week.

The Jamaican record-holder at 64.11 metres set earlier this year was 10th in his qualifying group with a best throw of 61.75m and was 18th overall of 31 throwers who registered a legal throw, with the top 12 moving on to the final which was contested yesterday.

Among those who failed to advance were Hungarian Zoltán Kövágó, the world leader going into the championships, American Jarred Rome and another Hungarian, Róbert Fazekas, who failed to register a legal throw.

Morgan, who says he is targetting the Pan-American Games to be held in Mexico in late October, told the Observer in an interview that “I feel good actually because I beat a lot of throwers who came in with big PRs and huge season bests, so it’s all good. I feel blessed”.

The former Calabar High and Louisiana Tech athlete said he felt like he has “created some history… I am 18th in the world, which other Jamaican discus thrower can say that? You know how good that makes me feel? I beat people who have PRs up to 6m better than mine.”

Morgan, who was second at the JAAA/Supreme Ventures National Trials before going on to win the Central American and Caribbean title later in Puerto Rico, says the memories from Daegu will be in his mind forever.

“Nobody can take this away from me. I threw over six metres better than I did the last time I went to Worlds.”

Four years ago in Osaka, Japan, he was 14th in his qualifying group with 55.32m.

His efforts did not go unnoticed, he told the Observer, saying while he did not throw that far, or as far as he hoped, a number of the top throwers offered him encouragement at the end of the qualifying.

Morgan, who was a long shot going into the event, started with two sub-60m throws — 58.51m and 57.56m — before registering 61.75m to jump several places up the ladder.

Jamaica’s best showing in the discus throw in a global championships came 73 years ago when Patrick Prendergast won a medal in the 1938 British Empire Games, the forerunner to the Commonwealth Games.