Dominican long jumper Mariah Toussaint had a bad day at the office as she failed to move on to the next round of the women’s long jump at the Commonwealth Games now taking place in Australia.
The overseas-based athlete found the going tough as she only managed to jump 5.67 meters to finish in 9th place in Zone A, a mark way below her personal best.
She jumped 5.64 meters on her first attempt, 5.57 meters in her second and 5.67 on her third and final attempt.
However the automatic qualifying mark was 6.60 meters, and the top 12 jumpers qualified for the finals.
Toussaint finished in 18th position.
She said she appreciated her first Commonwealth Games experience.
“It was a lot to take in with the stadium and all of the big-time jumpers but I am really appreciative of that,” she stated.
She said after viewing some of her jumps, she did actually jumped well but could not get “the right technique.”
“I have been trying a new approach for the past three weeks,” she said, adding that when she went to compete, she reverted to what she “used to know.”
“So it is just something that I have to look forward to changing when I go on to later meets later on,” she stated.
She expressed her upset at the results “although they were not that bad.”
“I had a lot of good takeaways from it, you just have to see what was wrong, go through and fix it for the next thing, especially since I have meets coming up later that is going to be in the States and hopefully some international meets in the future,” she stated.
Toussaint said the Dominica Olympic Committee has given her plenty of good funding and advice and has been doing a ‘really good job.’
“They got all of us here pretty much as fast as our coach would allow us to…” she stated. “For me, I was here for three weeks, so I felt like that really helped to prepare me to get where I need to be. With the funding that they gave I was able to get massaging back home or to get different supplements that I needed and although I was not able to hit the results that I wanted, I know in the future that I can able to do better with what they’ve given me.”
But DNO, just an observation, that word “fail” in the title there, I have an issue with it. Couldn’t you think of a different title for that story…excluding the word “fail?” I don’t know the young lady but the title hit me hard. Doh get vex ner, it’s just an observation.
I know how difficult it is for atheletes. It’s not all about winning but knowing what you want and keep working at it. Don’t give up, and do not let this bring you down. Thank you for representing DA.