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Smikle upsets Dacres to win Jamaican discus title

Los Angeles - Traves Smikle scored an upset win over world leader Fedric Dacres in the men’s discus throw on Saturday at the Jamaican National Championships in Kingston.

Dacres came into the nationals on the back of a monster performance less than a week ago when he threw 70.78 metres at a IAAF Diamond League event in Rabat, Morocco.

He struggled on Saturday, fouling three of his attempts and could only get a 63.49m as Smikle upstaged him with a 64.50m toss. Chad Wright finished in third place with 60.66m.

Both Smikle and Dacres have achieved the World Championship  qualifying standard.

There were no surprises in the women’s shot put where World Championship finalist Danniel Thomas-Dodd won the event with a throw of 18.52m beating defending champion Lloydricia Cameron (16.89m) and Nayoka Clunis, who took third place with a 16.34m.

The 100m champions from Friday night remained on course for the double after qualifying from the 200m semi-finals on Saturday.

Yohan Blake, the men’s 100m champion, was an easy winner in his semi-final heat, running 20.42 seconds.

Rasheed Dwyer, who was third in the 100m on Friday, also won his heat in 20.33 seconds while Julian Forte ran 20.54 seconds to advance.

Andel Miller ran a personal best 20.57 seconds to book his spot.

Women’s 100m champion Elaine Thompson and runner up Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce both won their semi-final heats to qualify for Sunday’s final of the 200m.

With world champion Omar McLeod using his wild card for the upcoming Doha World Championships, the men’s 110m hurdles promises to be an exciting final after three men all ran 13.66 seconds in the semi-finals on Saturday.

World and Olympic Games medallist Hansle Parchment won the second heat with 13.66 seconds, Commonwealth Games champion Ronald Levy won the first heat with a 13.66 and Orlando Bennett won the third heat with a 13.66.

Olympic Games medallist Shericka Jackson ran a 50.69 seconds in the semi-finals to lead the women’s 400m.

Rusheen McDonald’s season’s best 45.25 seconds was the fastest among the men in the 400m.

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