Thomas wins accolades at Union College

Cayman Islands women’s javelin national record-holder, Daneliz Thomas, set a new school mark as she competed for Union College last weekend. Her performance was also good enough to earn her Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Women’s Field Athlete of the Week on 25 March, 2019.

The freshman for the Kentucky-based school won her event with a throw of 39.92 metres at the Emory University (Ga.) Invitational. In addition to establishing a new Union College record, the toss also secured Thomas qualification for the NAIA National Championships in May. Her throw was the third best in the NAIA this season.

“I’m proud of it. It’s my first outdoor meet of the season,” Thomas told CaymanSportsBuzz.com.

However, the four-time CARIFTA Games medalist is expected to have bigger performances, as there was no track approach but instead she had to run on grass prior to the throw. That’s something she’s not accustomed to doing.

“We need to work more on my full approach because during the whole meet, I threw off a seven-step [approach] instead of my full approach because it felt weird because we were on grass instead of a track.”

Nonetheless, she topped the field. “I feel really good. My coach was really proud that we qualified for the national championships in our first outdoor meet. But he says there is room for improvement, and we have a lot of stuff to work on this week,” Thomas said.

She’s now set her sights on a big performance at the NAIA National Championships in May. “My goal is to go to nationals and try to throw the 50 metres that I’ve been wanting to do for a while.”

Thomas and her Union College Bulldogs teammates are back in action on 30 April at the Centre College (Ky.) Invitational.

 

 

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