Gold for Dacres
BARCELONA, Spain — Fedrick Dacres mined gold for Jamaica today when he threw a personal best 62.80m to win the discus gold medal at the 14th IAAF World Junior Championships at the Montjuic Olympic Stadium, to add to the World Youth gold he won last year in France.
Dacres, who struggled a bit in the preliminaries earlier this week, beat off a strong field to give Jamaica its second medal after Odean Skeen won bronze in the men’s 100m the night before.
The Calabar High student, who won at the CAC juniors in El Salvador two weeks ago, had a brilliant series with all his legal throws over 60.00m to beat Wojciech Praczyk of Poland- 62.75n and South Africa’s Gerhard de Beer – 61.57m.
Of his four legal throws, Dacres, who also won at Boys Champs and CARIFTA Games, threw 60.46m, 62.80m, 61.20m and 61.29m.
The lanky Dacres, who prowled non-stop like a big cat in-between throws, told reporters after the event that he channelled all his struggles and frustrations this year into his throws and got the result he wanted.