Dacres targeting national record

After posting a national record and a then world-leading throw, Fedrick Dacres will have much to look back on as the calendar year draws to a close. The Jamaican discus thrower says, however, that his New Year's resolution for 2020 is to improve on his performances to date.

It was in July 2019 that Dacres launched a massive 70.78m throw in the World Athletics Rabat Diamond League meet, which saw him enter the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, as one of the strong favourites. Dacres, at the time, was not overly concerned about the feat as his main focus was to remain consistent throughout the year.

"Truly, it means nothing," Dacres said in a previous interview with THE STAR. "It just means that we got a good throw. It's really nice to see, but we're working more on getting the consistent throws. As for my expectations, I just wanted to be consistently over 70m. We're training hard and trying to be consistent because the big day is coming up."

As the 2020 season approaches, however, Dacres is reflective about his performances over the year and is particularly proud of his achievements, despite falling just short of the main prize at the World Championships in Qatar when his 66.94m effort was edged out by Swedish athlete Daniel Stahl's winning throw of 67.59m.

"I think it was a successful season, despite not winning everything," Dacres said. "It was good enough for me to come out with a silver at one of the highest levels in track and field, so I'm thankful all the same."

JUST TRYING TO BE BETTER

Dacres will end the season as Jamaica's best discus thrower of 2019 and second in the world overall. He says that his aim for the 2020 season will be to always try to improve on himself as he will be making small changes to his training.

"I do expect some changes in my training but nothing too major that would throw me off," he said. "Hopefully, it will make me better. I'm just trying to be better. [In 2019] I threw 70m, so next year, I'm trying to go more."