My coach is a perfectionist - Dacres

Dominating discus thrower Fedrick Dacres has described his coach Julian Robinson as a perfectionist. Speaking to the IAAF in an interview that appeared on October 11, the 24-year-old Dacres says that Robinson has taught him every aspect of the event and how to put it all together. In the interview, which forms part of the IAAF's Why I Love Throwing series, Dacres recalls that he followed his brother into the sport.

"What attracted me to the event was actually that my brother used to throw the discus and he was pretty good," Dacres recounted of big brother, Rojay , who won the gold medal in the Class Two shot put for Calabar High at Boys and Girls' Championships 2008.

"He made national teams and all that," he said of his brother who won a bronze in the discus at the 2008 Carifta Games.

Fedrick's first discus experience was encouraging.

"I remember one time, before I even had any thought of becoming a discus thrower, I picked up a black rubber disc and I threw it, and I threw it well - I threw it better than anyone else - but this was when I was really young," he said.

In the interview, he acknowledged the role of coach Robinson in his success. "My coach is a perfectionist I must say, so he has taught us the basics of throwing from the stand throw to the 180s (degree) and the half-turns and so forth," he explained. "He has taught us every version of a throw, and he has put it together to give a full throw," Dacres detailed.

Understanding

"If you understand every part and you put each part together," he reasoned, "you'll probably get a good throw."

In 2018, Dacres produced good throws by the score. He won 21 of the 25 meets he contested and launched his disc past 68 metres on six occasions. He topped off wins at the Commonwealth Games, the Athletics World Cup, the NACAC Championships, and the Continental Cup, with a national record of 69.67 metres in Stockholm.

To Dacres, good throws are a blend of aggression and relaxation.

"You have to be mellow. Everything has to add up to the main thing", he told the IAAF.

"For me," he analysed, "it's all about being smooth. The smoother you are, the better your throw."

Dacres believes that his success and the rise of Jamaica in throwing events prove that there is more to the island nation than just sprinting.

"Of course, I have always thought we could have done so much more, and we can do so much more across different events as a nation, but I don't take it as a responsibility to prove that," he said. "I just try to be the best me, the best person I can be, and if I inspire someone then that's great, but one day someone might come around and replace me," he said.

The 2015 and 2017 World Championship finalist hinted that the Jamaican throws movement hasn't reached its limits.

"I think we can do more, and I think I have done a pretty good job thus far," he asserted, "but at this point, I'm just trying to be me, I am not trying to change anything. I just want to give the best for myself and my country as I can."