Dacres hopes to make mark at World Champs

July 09, 2025
Fedrick Dacres
Fedrick Dacres

When World Athletics Championships discus throw silver medallist Fedrick Dacres failed to make the Jamaican team for the Paris Olympics last year, he said it hurt, but after earning his spot on the team to the Tokyo World Championships in September, he said he hopes to leave a mark to remember.

"Coming fourth at trials last year I felt bad but, the lead-up to trials justified the placing. However, we sent the best guys at that time to represent so I was good," Dacres told STAR Sports.

With his World Championships silver medal coming in 2019, Dacres said he's looking forward to this year's staging.

"It's as important to me as all of them. To be honest I don't try to pressure myself," said the 31-year-old.

It might be a bit more difficult for Dacres to top the podium as a new world record in the event of 75.56 metres was achieved by Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania in April of this year.

"I'm not intimidated at all because that really has nothing to do with me," the former Diamond League, Commonwealth Games and two-time Pan American champion said.

Dacres, who is still the national record holder with a distance of 70.78m, said he is focused on keeping healthy.

"Just being smarter with training to remain healthy but separate and apart from that I'm pretty much doing the same things," he said.

He said the current state of field performance by Jamaican athletes is something to embrace.

"We are punching in the fields man, the proof is in the pudding. I love seeing where we've come from to now having medals and records in a non-traditional sport and being feared! It's just gonna get better," he said speaking about Jamaica earning four medals in the field events at last year's Olympics.

"I loved seeing the guys representing well and young Roje Stona punching the perfect day was just the icing on the cake and I loved to see it."

A number of those field Olympic medallists are now said to be moving to switch allegiance to represent Turkiye, including Olympic discus record holder and gold medallist Roje Stona.

Champion Ralford Mullings, Dacres and Chad Wright were the top three in the discus at the recent national championships.

Editor's note: Dacres' season's best is 63.54m. He is still seeking the automatic qualifying distance of 67.20m for the World Championships. He has until August 24 to achieve this mark. Wright is also chasing the automatic qualifying mark.

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