Fedrick Dacres and Shaunae Miller-Uibo (© Getty Images)
Jamaican discus thrower Fedrick Dacres and Bahamian sprinter Shaunae Miller-Uibo have been named the NACAC (North American, Central American and Caribbean) athletes of 2018.
Dacres won the Commonwealth title back in April and went on to win at the IAAF Diamond League meetings in Rome, Stockholm and Paris. He cemented his status as the world’s top discus thrower by winning at the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels and at the IAAF Continental Cup Ostrava 2018.
He threw beyond 68 metres in nine competitions, topped by a Jamaican record of 69.67m in Stockholm. He also won at the NACAC Championships in Toronto, throwing a championship record of 68.47m.
Miller-Uibo was undefeated in all competitions in 2018. After winning the Commonwealth 200m title in April, she won three races at her specialist distance of 400m – including a world-leading national record of 48.97 in Monaco – and then turned her focus back to the shorter sprint.
She won at the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels and at the IAAF Continental Cup Ostrava 2018, capping a superb year which started back in February by equalling the world indoor best for 300m.
Cuban triple jumper Jordan Diaz and Jamaican sprinter Briana Williams were named NACAC junior athletes of the year.
Diaz won the world U20 triple jump title in Tampere, having set a world U18 best of 17.41m earlier in the year. Williams won the 100m and 200m titles in Tampere 2018. Aged just 16 at the time, she is the youngest athlete to win a sprint double at the IAAF World U20 Championships.
IAAF
