Fedrick Dacres was the only Jamaican winner at Thursday’s (31 May) Golden Gala, the fourth stop in the IAAF Diamond League Series in Rome.
Dacres produced 68.51m to take the men’s discus throw. He also had marks of 66.69m and 65.68m.
“My technique was on today even though I was tired. It was a nice condition,” said Dacres, who said his aim is the PR again this season.
“Over the years I have been getting better and better, learning from the other throwers. I think that my technique is a mixture of (Piotr) Malachowskis, (Robert) Hartings and (Ehsan) Hadadi techniques. I tried to build my own technique from bits of theirs,” said the Jamaican.
Andrius Gudzius (LTU) was the second best with 68.17m and Ehsan Hadadi (IRI), third with 65.93m.
Jamaicans Janieve Russell, Danielle Williams, Stephenie-Ann McPherson get second at Golden Gala
Williams ran 12.82 to take second in the women’s 100m hurdles, which went to American Sharika Nelvis in 12.76s.
McPherson, 50.69s was also a second-place finisher, to End Salwa Naser of Bahrain in 50.51.
Russell was second in the women’s 400m hurdles, her time 54.08, bettered only American Georganne Moline, in a season-best 53.97s.
American Dalilah Muhammad, the 2017 world champion, was back in third with a time of 54.65s.
Mariya Lasitskene (ANA) produced a world-leading 2.02m to take the top spot in the women’s high jump.
Abderrahman Samba of Qatar was in top form by taking the men’s 400m hurdles in 47.48s, setting a new area record, world lead and diamond league record.
Jamaican Tajay Gayle, 8.17m finished fifth in the men’s long jump, won by Luvo Manyonga of South Africa, 8.58s. Aisha Praught, 9:19.33 ended eighth in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase.
Shericka Jackson, 23.14, finished sixth in the women’s 200m, topped by Marie-Josee Ta Lou in 22.49s.
Ronnie Baker ran a world lead and personal best 9.93 to take the top spot in the men’s 100m. Jimmy Vicaut of France was second in 10.04 while Christian Coleman ended fourth in 10.06.
“Today was definitely a great confidence booster – to have the last two wins under my belt is great but I know I need to keep working hard,” said Baker. “It was my first victory lap and I need to work on doing it faster.”
“The things I’m doing in practice are going well and they show there is more to come. Every race is anybody’s race, it’s never a definite between myself and Christian,” added Baker.
