Dacres ‘satisfied’ with fifth-place finish in Budapest
BUDAPEST, Hungary – It wasn’t the result he wanted but Fedrick Dacres was “satisfied” with his fifth-place finish in the men’s discus throw competition on Monday’s third day of the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary, throwing 62.77m
It was Dacres first major final since he won the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar and while he noted that he had “a lot more I could have done,” he said the season was far from over and he was expecting to throw further as the season went on.
Traves Smikle, who also advanced to the final, finished in 11th place with a best of 61.90m.
Olympic Games finalist Candice McLeod qualified for the final of the women’s 400m with a gutsy performance, but for the second straight day, there was a major disappointment for Jamaica as gold medal favourite Jaydon Hibbert, who had qualified first in the triple jump, hurt his hamstring in the first round and was forced to withdraw.
Hibbert appeared set to start his quest for his first senior gold medal but he grabbed for his right hamstring during his run-up and never executed the jump.
Despite attention from medical staff on hand and after several attempts, testing the leg, he withdrew from the competition as Fabrice Zango of Burkino Faso won with 17.64m (-0.3m/s) beating two Cubans Lazaro Martinez-17.41m (-0.6m/s) and Cristian Napoles, who took the bronze with a personal best 17.40m (0.1m/s).
McLeod, who had run 50.62 seconds for fourth place in the first of three semi-finals, had to wait through two races before knowing her fate, advancing on time.
An emotional McLeod said afterwards, “I did not want to be at the national trials this year.” When asked why, she answered “difficulties.”
She, however, added “but I got here and now I am in the finals and I am grateful for that, leading up to this it was one per cent Candice McLeod, 99 per cent of my supporters, my family, my friends, God, I could not do it on my own to be honest and as I said it was definitely one per cent me because mentally I was not there.”
