‘Fedrick couldn’t come a street’ - Discus star’s mom credits firm upbringing for his success

When Fedrick Dacres was younger, his mother Claudette Morgan would walk him to the bus stop at Torrington Bridge from their Slipe Pen Road home every day until he made it to sixth form at Calabar High School.

“(I used to walk with) Fedrick, his older brother and his younger sister. Every morning! Sometime I know them feel a way but me nuh care,” she said, letting out a big laugh.

And that attention didn’t stop once the “hyper” Dacres got to school either.

“Him give a lot of trouble, (as a boy). Not rude trouble enuh, but him love play, love tease people, laugh at you, always want people to laugh. I actually go school and watch him in the class like two or three times a week,” she said. “Yuh see a school? Dem tired fi see me a peep through di class window pon dem.”

Morgan was determined that her children would have a good education at all costs.

“It’s the community that they grew up in, and then again how I grew up. My mother wasn’t that supportive when it come on to academics. So I said to them ‘Not because we’re living here, I want you guys to be an example here, so that other children can follow’,” she said.

That determination to see her children succeed laid the platform for Dacres, who on Monday won the silver medal in the discus at the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships.

Morgan recalled that her house was like a safe haven for the children.

“Him couldn’t come a street. I don’t send him go shop. A me go. Sometime people seh to me ‘No man, Claudette, yuh can mek him go a shop, enuh’. Mi seh no, mek him stay in. My children dem grow on bed. The bed! I didn’t have no problem with them staying on my bed. Dem stay on the bed watch TV and if possible, dem eat pon di bed too,” she said laughing.

Involvement in sports

Looking at his World Champs performance, Morgan reflected on his involvement in sports at a young age.

“The last year of basic school he was the champion boy. And the lady who put him to race, I said to her ‘Oh God man, him must tired’. Every race she put him inna! She seh no … if him did tired, him woulda stop. Me seh because a him, Brown House win that year,” she said.

Morgan said that Dacres “Shot up GSAT” and attended Calabar. But she was still vigilant about his studies.

“The first year he started training, I see like him grades start drop. I went to the coach and I seh ‘Sir, mek me tell yuh dis, enuh, I don’t send him come a school because a track and field. I send him come because a academics’. Me tell him fi break him, and if him improve on the next report, him can continue. He did improve and I allowed him to continue,” she said.

Morgan says she never wanted their Slipe Pen Road address to define her children.

“I’m feeling so proud. I think I have done my best and set an example for other parents in the ghetto. Me tell my children me born and see me mada, me grandmada here, unu not staying here. Better unnu leave me! Ghetto mean to get out!” she said.