Pan Am: Dominica’s Dillon Simon foul out in Shotput finals  

“It’s not a pleasing way to end the season”, said Dominican Shotput player Dillon Simon after three failed attempts in the finals of Pan American games at Peru. His all three attempts were declared as foul on Wednesday.

Simon, who was also a finalist in 2015, had hoped that at this showing in the Pan American Games he would beat his personal best and the national record he previously set. Speaking after the competition, Simon said that he had to overcome a few hurdles to make it this far as of his coach.

“The season started pretty well, but like I said many times before, when my coach passed away that’s when everything went downhill. I tried to resurrect the season but due to a lot of technical and programming issues things weren’t clicking,” he said.

However, he failed to secure any medal in Pan American games this season but he expressed his dedication to shift his focus towards the future, not feel remorseful for the past.

“I learned a lot this season. Definitely, next year I should be better prepared to compete. Hopefully, I’ll be getting a new coach, a new training system next year. All I can do is look forward to that. This is the last meet so like I said it’s not a pleasing way to end the season. What’s in the past is in the past and now I gotta focus on what’s coming in the future. Hopefully, everything plays out well and I could represent Dominica much better come next season.”

“It’s always good to represent Dominica. We don’t have a lot of athletes on the big stage. So the fact that I can get a chance to represent Dominica on any big stage is always a proud moment for me. But one of my goals for the future is to definitely represent Dominica on a much bigger level and hopefully that will be a thing to happen come next season and the seasons after that,” Simon asserted.

Notably, Brazil’s Darlan Romain broke the Pan Am record to win the Shotput by throwing 22.07 meters. The previous record was set by 2015 champion O’Dayne Richards of Jamaica who did not get chance to secure a medial this time. In just two days of athletics, 7 previous records have been broken.