PHILADELPHIA, USA — After his “failure” last year when he placed third, Calabar High School’s Fedrick Dacres was determined to make amends this year in his final competition as a junior and he did so in a big way winning the high school boys discus throw with 68.73m, the second best effort at the century-old Penn Relays Carnival.

Basil Bingham made it a one-two finish for coach Julian Robinson with 59.69m in his first trip to the meet as the athletes used the 1.60kg disc, lighter than the one they used at other meets.

Dacres, the IAAF World Youth and World Junior champion who atoned for the one place he has not been able to win in the last three years and was less than a metre under the old record of 69.55m set two years ago by former Calabar athlete Traves Smikle.

Failing to get the record by less than a metre was not a big deal for Dacres. “You know, Travis is the best junior discus thrower as far as I am concerned, so to be second to him is OK with me,” he said.

Dacres started slowly with a throw of just over 53.00m before fouling his second throw, but said Robinson settled him down by telling him to “relax and throw, you have it in you”.

He got the winning throw on the next throw as he dominated the competition winning by a wide margin of over eight metres.

Munro College’s Jevaughn Shaw, the bronze medallist at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Champs, was ninth with 52.67m while Oshane Chambers of Calabar High was 11th followed by Drexel Maycock and Kino Dunkley of Munro College.