Thomas-Dodd heads to Commonwealth with better mindset

EUGENE, Oregon:

SHE DID not make the podium this time around, but there is still satisfaction for the 2019 World Championship silver medallist Danniel Thomas-Dodd, who says she is in a better place mentally when compared to last year.

Thomas-Dodd finished 10th in the women’s shot put final with a best throw of 18.29 metres. While she said she felt good in the warm-ups, she said in her eagerness to display the improvements in her training she rushed things in the final.

“I always talked about being patient and I think that was my downfall. I saw what I could do in the warm-ups and then I kind of wanted it to come to fruition in the final. We started to figure some things out just before we got here and I wanted to get it so bad that I started to rush everything,” Thomas-Dodd told The Gleaner.

Compared to last year when her struggles resulted in a first-round exit at the Tokyo Olympics, Thomas-Dodd says that she is in a much better place. Now she knows she is still capable of producing better than she displayed. Proof of that was shown in her season’s best 19.53-metre throw in May.

“Last year I did struggle in Tokyo because I was still battling injuries. Mentally, I was down and I think this year for me, I am so happy, even though the performance didn’t reflect what I wanted to do. I didn’t think that I would be in that good a shape to throw the distances that would put me on the podium. But I saw that I am still capable of throwing that far. So for me, it’s just to take that positivity going forward,” Thomas-Dodd said.

Thomas-Dodd will now turn her attention to the Commonwealth Games where she hopes that positivity will lead to a more favourable result.

“When I started to throw there were no Jamaicans on the scene or in any position that I am in right now. This is my fourth World Championships and I am the only Jamaica women who has ever done anything at this level, so I am just super happy about that.”

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com