‘Not a stadium person’ - Dacres endured discomfort to set season’s best

World Athletics Champion-ships (Worlds) discus throw silver medallist Fedrick Dacres does not like lingering in stadiums.

While pleased at his improvement at Velocity Fest 11 at the National Stadium on Saturday, he said that he felt off with his performance, believing that he could have done much better if conditions had been favourable.

His assessment comes as he set a meet record of 65.98m as he continues to make ground on his 2022 campaign. Despite the effort, Dacres said he felt the effects of being inside the stadium for an extended period, something that he is not used to.

"I'm not really a stadium person," he told STAR Sports. "The longer I stay in the stadium, the more my head starts to hurt and I feel nauseous. The lingering in the stadium, I don't know why it always affects me. I felt it coming so I wanted to just get to work and then get out. I didn't even take off my sweats."

While he said the conditions were taxing, Dacres is pleased that he landed a season's best effort, edging closer to his best after suffering a wrist injury in late 2020.

"To come out with a season's best, I felt that I could have done way better if the conditions were right," Dacres said.

Dacres was in a race to get healthy for the Tokyo Olympics, which he participated in but did not advance to the final last year.

With an eye on the Worlds in Oregon this year, Dacres said he is not bothered by the growing weight of expectation for him to win major medals, but is more concerned about his own growth.

"For me, you can't really think about people when you are going through this. It is best that you think about yourself," Dacres said.