I would be hurt – Dacres

World Championship runner-up Fedrick Dacres understands why the 2020 staging of Boys and Girls Championships has been cancelled but said he’d be hurt if he was among the final year high school student-athletes who will miss their last chance at Champs glory. At the same time, he isn’t worrying about a similar cancellation of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Speaking on March 11 at the UWI Invitational on the grounds of the UWI/Usain Bolt track, Dacres expressed special sympathy for the athletes who will miss their last Champs.

“I definitely feel it for them because they will never experience this again but I guess it’s in precaution for the whole corona situation but I know, if it was me, I’d be really hurt and they won’t have the experience so they can talk about it and everything but I guess, you know, it’s for the best,” said the ace discus thrower in the wake of a March 11 decision to cancel Champs as part of measures to combat the coronavirus.

The decision was communicated after a meeting between ISSA, the organisation behind Champs, title sponsor GraceKennedy and the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

Dacres competed with great success at Champs and in 2013, finished his years as a schoolboy with gold medals in the Class One discus and shot put.

Asked if he was worried about a similar cancellation possibly affecting the Olympics, Dacres was calm. “Not really,” he responded. “I’m a soldier. It’s not really for me to think about my programme and anything like that. It’s more for my coach. Once he has everything down, we’re good to go. Whenever it comes, it comes. We’ll just prepare properly,” said the Commonwealth and Pan-American Games champion.

His comments come amid speculation that the Games could be pushed back from its established July 24 start dates. The men’s discus qualifying round is set for the first day of athletics at the Games, July 31. Dacres, his training partner Traves Smikle, the Commonwealth and Pan-Am silver medal winner and 2014 Commonwealth Games finalist Chad Wright have surpassed the Olympic qualifying standard of 66 metres.

Later in the evening, he continued his preparations with a UWI Invitational win in his pet event. His top throw was 64.55 metres.