Dacres favoured to win discus event at Racers Adidas Grand Prix
Fresh from his victory in Germany, Jamaica’s top male field athlete Fedrick Dacres is looking to continue his rich vein of form as he hunts his first discus victory at the Racers Adidas Grand Prix on Saturday.
The 25-year-old Dacres who broke the stranglehold of the track stars to become Jamaica’s Sportsman of the Year for 2018 following a splendid season, will be at Racers for just the second time.
He was second in 2016 with a throw of 61.69m behind American Travis Bailey, who won with 63.96m. He missed the last two years and is expected back with a bang.
“For Racers, I am just gonna try be better than I was. It’s really a good feel, so [it] should be interesting,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
Last Saturday Dacres won his pet event in Germany with a throw of 68.64m bouncing back from the disappointment of throwing a season’s best 68.96m where he finished second to home boy Daniel Stahl with a massive 69.57m. On May 28 he was also second at the Ludvík Daňek Memorial, in the Czech Republic, with 64.76m.
The former Calabar High standout will line up against Racers Grand Prix defending champion Reggie Jagers of the United States of America, who won last year with 65.54m. Jagers has a season’s best of 66.67m, which puts him eighth this season.
In fact, the field will have four other Americans in Mason Finley, ranked sixth in the world this year with 67.13m; Rodney Brown, ranked 21st with 64.60m; Jared Schurmans with 61.11m comes in at 54th, and Sam Mattis, ranked 17th with 65.19m. Cuba’s Jorges Fernandez, who was eighth last year at Racers, is back and is ranked 19th in the world with 64.82m.
Besides Dacres, Jamaica will be represented by Basil Bingham and the baby giant Kai Chang of Calabar High, standing at six feet, seven inches. The 19-year-old Chang won the IAAF World Under-20 discus title in 2018 and will be severely tested against the seniors.
But all eyes will be on Dacres, who with the retirement of the incomparable Usain Bolt, is the country’s top field athlete at the moment. He had one of his best years in 2018 where he secured a trio of major wins.
Dacres won the discus gold medal at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Australia in a Games Record 68.20m on April 13. He followed up that victory by claiming the Diamond League discus title and US$50,000 at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels on August 31 with a throw of 68.67m, and then beat the world at the IAAF Continental Cup in the Czech Republic on September 8 with a throw of 67.97m.
He will be the one to beat at Racers Grand Prix and Jamaicans will get a chance to see a real world class discus event on local soil once again.
