Dacres growing in confidence

Oslo, Norway:

Having achieved his best ever placing at a senior global competition Jamaica's Fedrick Dacres is eyeing big things at the London IAAF World Championships in August.

The 23-year-old competing at only his second Diamond League, finished runner-up with a throw of 67.10m on his third attempt at the Bislett Games, the fifth IAAF Diamond League qualifying meeting of 2017, held yesterday in Norway.

Dacres was pleased with his effort and was equally delighted at having finished ahead of competitors such as reigning world champion Piotr Malachowski of Poland (seventhh) and German brothers Christoph Harting (sixth), who is the current Olympics champion, and 2012 Olympic champion Robert Harting (fifth).

The event was won by Sweden's Daniel Stahl with a throw of 68.06m while Belgium's Philip Milanov took third with a season best (SB) effort of 66.39m.

"I feel good coming out and competing with the big guys and despite coming second I got a good throw over 67m," Dacres told STAR Sports.

"I am now setting my sights on medalling (at the World Championships)."

The men and women's discus events were combined which Dacres said threw him off a bit due to the additional wait time plus the cold weather. He is hoping for better conditions on Sunday when he competes at the Stockholm stop of the Diamond League series.

Disqualification

The other Jamaican in action yesterday, Simone Facey, was eventually given third in the women's 200m following the disqualification and then reinstatement of event winner Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands.

Facey clocked a SB of 22.77 seconds, as Schippers, who turned 25 yesterday, won in 22.31 with Ahoure Murielle of the Ivory Coast second in 22.74 (SB).

"I feel way better than my first run that I did in Doha," Facey said. "I think I executed the curve the way how I wanted, I got out the way I wanted and I was able to stay in my phase."

Andre De Grasse of Canada registered his first 100m Diamond League victory of the season having failed on his two previous attempts. The Olympic Bronze medallist in the event stopped the clock at a SB time of 10.01. Great Britain's Chijindu Ujah was second in a SB equalling 10.02 while Ivory Coast's Youssef Meite took third in 10.03 (SB).