DESPITE not being at her brilliant best at last weekend’s 40th staging of the STETHS/Ollivierre/ Smith Invitational Meet at St Elizabeth Technical (STETHS) Sports Complex in Santa Cruz, newly minted national female junior shot put record holder Marla-Kay Lampart of Clarendon College says her best is still to come.

Lampart won the Class 1 Shot Put at STETHS with 13.01m but said she was far from satisfied with her performance, revealing a sore elbow had prevented her from going all out.

She was on fire a week earlier when she threw 15.98m to win the Women’s Open Shot Put at the Central Hurdles, Relays, and Field Events meet at G C Foster College of Physical Education and Sport, and also won the Girls’ Class 1 with 14.51m.

The 15.98m was a World Under 20 leading mark and was better than the previous Jamaican national junior record 15.72m set in 2015 by Lloydrica Cameron at the NCAA East Preliminary Round meet at University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Despite throwing further than any other Jamaica junior before, Lampart said she has yet to achieve the mark she had set for herself coming into the season but said she is keeping that close to her chest.

That mark could come at the ISSA Girls’ Champs about which she mentioned, “I have something big coming”, and that Britannie Johnson’s 15.33m mark set in 2023 could be in danger.

On Saturday, Lampart said she was hoping to have done better.

“I am not satisfied with 13.01m today,” she told the Jamaica Observer. “Today was just not the day but I know that I could do better…I am feeling a little bit of pain in my elbow so that threw me off and I could not punch the ball as I am used to.”

Lampart used a ‘power throw’ technique, basically throwing from a slight crouch rather than doing the spin or glide routine that is normally employed by throwers.

Looking back at the meet at G C Foster, Lampart described her effort as a pleasant surprise.

“It was awesome, just awesome. I was not expecting to throw as far so early but it is here so I am going to work with it,” said Lampart.

The first-year Class 1 thrower had ended last season with a best of 13.85m set in June at a meet held at the National Stadium, and noted that her big marks this year are good indications of things to come.

“[This] tells me that I am working hard and I am seeing the results,” she said.

Lampart admitted she was not even aware of her national junior record set at G C Foster, until her coach pointed it out to her.

“I was just there looking at the throw and coach came over and told me, and I was surprised. It felt good, felt really, really good,” she said.