Discus ace Dacres races aganst time to be fit for ‘trials’
Jamaica’s 2019 World Championships discus silver medallist Fedrick Dacres is considering submitting a medical exemption request as he races against time to be ready for the National Championship.
The three-day event, which will be staged June 23-26, serves as a trial for the World Championships slated for Oregon, USA, in July.
The 28-year-old Dacres, who is the national record holder with 70.78m, re-injured himself while competing at the Rabat Diamond League on June 5.
“I have aggravated the leg and we just have to go back into recovery. Probably we will send in a medical exemption for Trials. But will definitely be ready for World Champs,” Dacres told the Jamaica Observer.
“This is a setback because it is an abductor tear and it has set me back quite a bit actually
“I have had this injury for like a few weeks, but I guess it wasn’t treated right based on lack of information. So the last week or so, we made major improvement on the leg and we choose to test it here (Rabat Diamond League),” he explained.
Dacres continued: “Was hoping for muscle memory and honestly it didn’t work out in terms of me throwing. I felt solid but the leg didn’t hold up as well as it could have”.
Dacres finished 10th with a throw of 61.34m, which is a far cry from his personal best of 70.78m and his seasonal best of 65.98m.
He is ranked 14th in the world and is the second-best Jamaican this season behind Travis Smikle with 66.60m which puts him 11th in the world. Young guns Ralford Mullings with 65.39m and Roje Stona with 65.11m are the next best Jamaicans ranked 19th and 21st, respectively.
Dacres, who was Jamaica’s 2018 Sportsman-of-the-Year, has been battling injuries for a while and this is the latest setback.
The pioneering Dacres is the first Jamaican to win gold in the discus on the world stage. The former Calabar High standout has won gold in almost every competition he participates in except for the Olympic Games and the World Championships.
After dominating Champs, Dacres has won gold at the junior regional Carifta Games (2010, 2012); World Under-18 Youth Championship (2011); World Under-20 Junior Championship (2012); Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior Championship (2012); Senior Pan Am Games (2015, 2019); North American, Central American and Caribbean Championships (2018) and Commonwealth Games (2018).
His wait to prove himself at the Olympic Games endures but he has made marked improvement at the World Championships — from finishing seventh in 2015, to fourth in 2017, before mining silver at the 2019 edition in London.
— Howard Walker
