<p>Venezuela&rsquo;s Yulimar Rojas produced one of the most impressive performances of the 18th edition of the Pan-American Games, winning the triple jump with a 15.11m leap, a world leader, Games&rsquo; and national record on Friday (9) to highlight day four action at Lima&rsquo;s Estadio de la Videna.</p>
<p>The 23-year-old from Caracas, world ranked No.2 and the 2017 world champion, was totally dominant over a quality field that didn&rsquo;t include the 2016 Olympic champion and 2011 and 2015 Pan-Am Games winner, Catherine Ibarg&uuml;en. The 35-year-old Colombian, world ranked No.1, decided not to compete in this event in Lima, where she only contested the long jump (and finished fifth with 6.54m on 6 August).</p>
<p>Rojas, who was fourth four years ago in Toronto, delivered an impressive series, in spite of the evening&rsquo;s cold conditions. She produced three measured jumps, reaching 14.90m (0.7 m/s) on her first, 14.67m (-0.1) with her third and her 15.11m winner with her fourth. Her final effort, a foul by about seven centimetres, was a very long one, in the 15.50m area, which indicates that the tall Venezuelan could jeopardize the 24-year-old world record of 15.50 set by Ukraine&rsquo;s Inessa Kravets on 10 August 1995 in Gothenburg. The leap also added five centimetres to her previous career best set in Huelva, Spain, on 20 June.</p>
<p>Rojas&rsquo; medal is only the second athletics gold by a Venezuelan woman in Pan-American Games history. Jamaica&rsquo;s Shanieka Rickets, world ranked No.3, was second with a personal best of 14.77m (0.7 m/s), also after a solid series: foul, 14.76m (0.7), 14.76m (1.2), 14.43m (1.0) and 14.77m. Cuba&rsquo;s Liadagmis Povea, world ranked No.4, was third with 14.60m (-0.6).</p>
<h3>More honours for Fraser-Pryce</h3>
<p>Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, one of the most successful athletes of this time, added the Pan-American Games 200m title to her illustrious collection with a 22.43 (-0.1 m/s) performance to break the previous games record of 22.45 set by USA&rsquo;s Evelyn Ashford in 1979.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce en route to the Pan-American Games 200m title</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The 32-year-old from Kingston, world ranked No.2 at 100m, and multiple Olympic and world champion, dominated the race entirely, running a smooth curve and finishing off with her traditional and powerful stride, even relaxing a bit over the last 10 metres.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I want to think that I&rsquo;m much better at 100m, but the 200m represent a bigger challenge for me&rdquo;, said Fraser-Pryce, whose hair coloured green for the occasion. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m working on getting better at 200m and I&rsquo;m also very happy to win this title for my country. I knew it was cold, but it was cold for everyone, not just for me, so I just wanted to execute the first 100m like my coach told me to do. Now, I thank god that I finished healthy and I can go back home and put on some more training.&rdquo; Fraser-Pryce dedicated the victory to her son Zyon, who celebrated his second birthday a couple of days before the final.</p>
<p>Fraser-Pryce&rsquo;s victory was, curiously enough, the first for Jamaica at the Pan-American Games. Brazil&rsquo;s Vit&oacute;ria Rosa, world ranked No.16, was second with a personal best of 22.62, while Bahamas&rsquo; Tynia Gaither was third with 22.76.</p>
<h3>Thomas-Dodd improves to 19.55m</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Danniel Thomas-Dodd at the Pan-American Games in Lima</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Jamaica tops the medal table entering the final day of track and field. Danniel Thomas-Dodd provided the sixth gold for the Caribbean nation by winning the shot put with 19.55m, setting a new games and national record. Thomas-Dodd, world ranked No.4, achieved the winning mark in her final throw of the day with the victory already assured. Her gold was also the first for her nation at this event. Canada&rsquo;s Brittany Crew was second with a personal best and national record of 19.07m, while USA&rsquo;s Jessica Ramsey was third with a season&rsquo;s best of 19.01m.</p>
<h3>Three more gold medals for Brazil..</h3>
<p>Brazil also had a good day, producing three victories and reaching five gold medals in all, second in the table. The South American nation won both 4x100m relays and the men&rsquo;s 10,000m through &Eacute;derson Pereira.</p>
<p>The women&rsquo;s team of Andressa Fidelis, Vit&oacute;ria Rosa, Lorraine Martins and Ros&acirc;ngela Santos was the most consistent at each exchange and clocked 43.04, a season&rsquo;s best, to win the Games&rsquo; title for second time. Canada was second with 43.37, also a season&rsquo;s best, ahead of the US who clocked 43.39.</p>
<p>In the men&rsquo;s 4x100m, Brazil won for the fifth time in the last six games. Rodrigo do Nascimento, Jorge Henrique Vides, Derick de Souza and Paulo Andr&eacute; de Oliveira clocked 38.27, beating Trinidad and Tobago (season&rsquo;s best of 38.46) and the US (38.79).</p>
<p>In the 10,000m, Pereira delivered a strong kick over the last 1000m (2:37) to win with a personal best of 28:27.47. The field covered the first half in 14:12.33, pushed by USA&rsquo;s Lawi Lalang, who took control of the pace for the greater part of the race to eventually finish third with 28:31.75, just behind compatriot Reid Buchanan (28:28.41). Pereira&rsquo;s title is the third by a Brazilian at the distance.</p>
<h3>..and two more for USA</h3>
<p>The US team added two gold medals on Friday. Kara Winger triumphed in the women&rsquo;s javelin with a season&rsquo;s best of 64.92m, her best performance since 2015. Winger, the US record holder and world ranked No.8, threw beyond 60 metres with each of her efforts: 63.31m, 64.92m, 62.78m, 63.23m, 61.15m and 62.50m. The 33-year-old reversed the finish from Toronto 2015, where she was second behind Canada&rsquo;s Liz Gleadle. This time Gleadle threw 63.30m, while Ariana Ince, the 2019 US champion, was third with 62.32m.</p>
<p>The second US gold for the day (and third of the athletics competition) came through Nikki Hiltz, who won the women&rsquo;s 1500m in 4:07.14. Hiltz, world ranked No.30 and third at the recent US national championships, covered the last 300m in 47 seconds to outkick Jamaica&rsquo;s Aisha Praught (4:08.26) and Alexa Efraimson, also from the US (4:08.63). The last US athlete to win this event was Marla Runyan in 1999.</p>
<p>Mexico&rsquo;s Laura Galv&aacute;n, who finished fourth at 1500m with a personal best of 4:10.53, returned to the track 40 minutes later, to win the 5000m in 15:35.47, providing the third gold for Mexico. Profiting from her speed, the 27-year-old Galv&aacute;n ran the last kilometre in 2:54 to beat Canada&rsquo;s Jessica O&rsquo;Connell (15:36.08) and USA&rsquo;s Kimberley Conley (15:36.95).</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Pan-American Games 200m champion Alex Quinonez (r) leads Yancarlos Martinez (l) and Alonso Edward (c)</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>After a slow first part of his race, Alex Quinonez ran a formidable straight to take the men&rsquo;s 200m title in 20.27 (-1.0). The 29-year-old Ecuadorian, world ranked No.4, obtained the first gold for his country in a track event, the eight overall and second of these Games. Panama&rsquo;s Alonso Edward lead up to 120 metres, but faded to fourth in 20.55. Trinidad and Tobago&rsquo;s Jereem Richards was second with 20.38, with Dominican Republic&rsquo;s Yancarlos Mart&iacute;nez third in 20.44.</p>
<p>Cuba added its fifth medal of these Games through Luis Zayas. The 22-year-old won the hen&rsquo;s high jump with a personal best of 2.30m. Zayas, the 2016 world U20 champion, came to the contest with a personal best of 2.27m and a season&rsquo;s best of 2.25m.</p>
<p>Canada&rsquo;s Michael Mason, who has topped 2.31m this season and is world ranked No.4, was second with 2.28m. Mexico&rsquo;s Roberto Vilches was third with 2.26m.</p>
<p><strong>Eduardo Biscayart for the IAAF</strong></p>

Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas produced one of the most impressive performances of the 18th edition of the Pan-American Games, winning the triple jump with a 15.11m leap, a world leader, Games’ and national record on Friday (9) to highlight day four action at Lima’s Estadio de la Videna.

Rojas leaps world-leading 15.11m at Pan-American Games

<p><strong>Rising shot put star Danniel Thomas-Dodd has enjoyed an outstanding year so far winning the world indoor silver medal and the Commonwealth title. The Jamaican shares her passion for throwing and why she does what she does.</strong></p>
<p><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>&ldquo;Before I started in track and field, I was a netball player. I started out playing as a centre, which gave me good speed and agility. But after a coach saw me win the sprints at a school sports at Frome Technical High School he suggested I should join the track and field team. I was aged 13 at the time and very hesitant because my heart was in netball. But I decided to commit to athletics. I was quite a good sprinter at that time for my age-group, but after a year I picked up a groin injury, which meant I could no longer sprint. Instead my coach at the time, Rodrick Myles, asked me if I fancied throwing the discus. Ever since that moment I have been a thrower, although I didn&rsquo;t start throwing shot put until two years later.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I received a scholarship to Kent State University in Ohio on the back of my discus throwing, but because the winters are so harsh with months of snow, I spent very little time training outdoors and it was during my freshman year while training indoors I started to focus more on the shot put. I would say that is when my passion developed.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I may have had a lot of expectations in the discus, but I quickly found I was enjoying better results in the shot. That is the moment I thought, &lsquo;I think I can do this&rsquo;. During my freshman year at college at a NCAA regional meeting is when I would say I first learned to love the shot.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The main reason I love the shot, is because of the technical nature of an event. I&rsquo;m a rotational thrower and although I&rsquo;m not saying the glide is not technical, there is so much more to the spin. The biggest challenge I faced when moving to rotational throwing was learning to control the speed, which was tricky as a former sprinter. It took some time to master.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Another reason I enjoy the challenge so much is because I was one of the first female rotational shot putters. This was exciting, as I adopted the model from my second high school coach, Marlon Gayle, who taught me so much and gave me stacked piles of articles to read about the rotational technique. I recall looking at the technique of throwers such as Reese Hoffa (the 2007 World champion) and Christian Cantwell (the 2009 World champion) and I learned from them because back then they were few female rotational throwers. Ultimately, I love the fact that when I&rsquo;m in the circle I don&rsquo;t have to worry about anybody other than myself.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Throwing the shot to an international standard has also given me the chance to travel the world and learn about different cultures. This has given me a whole different perspective on life and I am very grateful for the opportunities the sport, and throwing the shot, has presented to me.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Steve Landells for the IAAF</strong></p>

Rising shot put star Danniel Thomas-Dodd has enjoyed an outstanding year so far winning the world indoor silver medal and the Commonwealth title. The Jamaican shares her passion for throwing and why she does what she does.

Danniel Thomas-Dodd: I love throwing because...

<p>Late last month, when Danniel Thomas-Dodd arrived in Birmingham, she looked at the snowy streets, the iced canals, felt the freezing wind on her face and thought to herself: perfect.</p>
<p>If that seems an usual reaction for a Jamaican, one who grew up in the tropical climate of Westmoreland on the west side of the island, it&rsquo;s because Thomas-Dodd has for many years dealt with severe winters at her training base in Ohio, USA.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;perfect, this is my kind of weather,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Thomas-Dodd. &ldquo;Right now it&rsquo;s very similar in Ohio to here.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The temperature indoors, however, felt much more Jamaican on Friday night as Thomas-Dodd claimed the first global medal in a women&rsquo;s throwing event in her nation&rsquo;s history. To defy the odds in such fashion, you have to be wired a little differently to the rest, and that&rsquo;s been the case for Thomas-Dodd ever since the age of 15.</p>
<h3>Career Change</h3>
<p>In her early teens, Thomas-Dodd was better known as a netball player, following in the footsteps of her mother, but that soon changed when she transferred schools to Edwin Allen High, a renowned factory for athletics talent.</p>
<p>There, she came under the guidance of coach Roderick Myles, and he encouraged the youngster to transfer her talent to sprinting, highlighting how it would stand her a much better chance at getting a college scholarship to the US.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Danniel Thomas-Dodd in the shot put at the IAAF World Championships London 2017</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>So how was it that she ended up a shot putter, in Jamaica of all places?</p>
<p>&ldquo;Funny story,&rdquo; said Thomas-Dodd. &ldquo;My high school coach didn&rsquo;t know but I was doing something silly and I hurt my groin, and I started to put on a little bit of weight because I couldn&rsquo;t sprint, so he put me in the throws. I started with the discus because that&rsquo;s my heart and I transitioned from that to the shot put.&rdquo;</p>
<p>By the age of 19, she improved her discus best to 51.02m and shot put to 14.58m, which earned her a scholarship to Kent State University in Ohio. In 2012, she left Jamaica for the city in the United States midwest, where at this time of year there&rsquo;s typically a 35-degree difference to Jamaica &ndash; and we&rsquo;re talking Celsius.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was a big decision, to leave home to a cold state was a big change,&rdquo; said Thomas-Dodd. &ldquo;But it has paid off.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Late Bloomer</h3>
<p>Early in her college career, there was scant trace of the world-class ability that would later emerge. At the age of 20 she improved her best to 16.10m and finished 19th in the shot put at the NCAA Championships. The following year, she threw 16.82m and went on to finish ninth at NCAA&rsquo;s.</p>
<p>In 2015 she threw 17.76m and qualified for her first IAAF World Championships, a valuable learning experience despite her elimination in the first round in Beijing. In 2016 she plateaued but experienced her first Olympic Games in Rio, and then 2017 brought the breakthrough she had long sought.</p>
<p>In the NCAA final in Eugene, she unloaded a whopping heave of 19.15m, a Jamaican record, to take victory, which catapulted her into medal contention for the IAAF World Championships in London.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was a late bloomer,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ve learned that the more consistent you are, the better you&rsquo;ll be able to manage a good series on a bad day. Practice makes perfect.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In London, she came up against three titans of the women&rsquo;s shot put &ndash; Lijiao Gong of China, Anita Marton of Hungary and Michelle Carter of USA &ndash; and despite throwing a decent 18.91m in the final, she was demoted from third to fourth in the final round, just 23cm off a medal.</p>
<p>&ldquo;That left me down a little bit,&rdquo; said Thomas-Dodd, &ldquo;but it drove me to perform this time around.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Silver Lining</h3>
<p>Heading into the IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018, Thomas-Dodd knew a medal was on the cards, having thrown a national record of 19.05m in Kent, Ohio in early February. But after that final-round letdown in London, she was taking nothing for granted.</p>
<p>She opened with 18.92m to seize an early lead, but was usurped by Gong in the second round, the Chinese thrower hurling the sphere 18.98m. &ldquo;I had to relax, work my technique,&rdquo; said Thomas-Dodd. &ldquo;Consistency is key.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In the third round Marton seized command with 19.48m, though the Jamaican kept her composure to launch a lifetime best of 19.22m moments later. In the end, that proved enough for Thomas-Dodd to end her nation&rsquo;s long wait for a medal in the women&rsquo;s throws.</p>
<p><iframe style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FWorldAthleticsClub%2Fvideos%2F1612402782141886%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=500" width="500" height="288" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>But in a country obsessed with sprints, do many back home take an interest in the throws?</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think they are,&rdquo; said Thomas-Dodd. &ldquo;Last year in London I was close to getting a medal and [the reaction] showed that the whole country is developing an interest.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And having blazed a trail for her countrywomen, Thomas-Dodd hopes others will now re-align their ambitions.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It shows kids that you can venture into other events,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Jamaica is not just a sprint country and if all the younger athletes are listening, I hope they realise that if I&rsquo;ve done it, they can do the same.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Next up for Thomas-Dodd will be the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, and she has no intention to relent now that she&rsquo;s got a major medal in the bag. When asked how she planned to celebrate her silver, she responded with one word: &ldquo;sleep&rdquo;.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Even though I&rsquo;ve got a medal, this doesn&rsquo;t mean I&lsquo;m going to relax and not work as hard as I&rsquo;ve been working,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not there yet, so I&rsquo;m going to keep doing the things I&rsquo;ve been doing&hellip;and even better.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Cathal Dennehy for the IAAF</strong></p>

Late last month, when Danniel Thomas-Dodd arrived in Birmingham, she looked at the snowy streets, the iced canals, felt the freezing wind on her face and thought to herself: perfect.

Rojas leaps world-leading 15.11m at Pan-American Games

Danniel Thomas-Dodd: I love throwing because...

Switch from sprints to shot put reaps dividends for Thomas-Dodd