{"id":318371,"date":"2024-03-03T14:07:32","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T18:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=318371"},"modified":"2024-03-03T14:07:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T18:07:32","slug":"update-thea-lafond-becomes-dominicas-first-world-champion-in-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/update-thea-lafond-becomes-dominicas-first-world-champion-in-athletics\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Thea Lafond becomes Dominica’s first world champion in athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Thea Lafond flag displays the Dominican flag after her historic win<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thea Lafond created history on Sunday when she became the first Dominican to win a gold medal at a global athletics competition.<\/p>\n

She needed just two attempts to win gold in the women triple jump at the World Indoor Athletics Championships now taking place in Glasgow, Scotland.<\/p>\n

LaFond managed a best of 15.01 meters in her second effort and she was the sole competitor to go over the 15-meter mark. It was the best jump in the world this year.<\/p>\n

Speaking after her win, she stated that she is proud to be from Dominica, which she described as “small, beautiful and powerful country in the Caribbean.”<\/p>\n

“I am so grateful, I really hope that today was just an inspiration, today was just a day that brought joy to my people,” she said. “I want them to know how much I love them, how much I appreciate them.”<\/p>\n

She said she was grateful to the many Dominicans who have reached out to her and wish her good luck.<\/p>\n

“I just want to say how thankful I am, for one the opportunity to represent Dominica and two, just the joy that I am feeling right now,” the athlete stated. “I feel so lucky right now.”<\/p>\n

Lafond said she got inspiration for her win from St Lucian sprinter, Julien Alfred, who also created history when she became the first athlete to win a world medal for her country at the same event. Alfred won gold in the 60-meter dash in 6.98 seconds on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“I would be lying to you if I say I didn’t cry last night when I saw her gold,” she said. “One of the first thing I thought of when I got out there to the track after the introduction was like, I need a one, two punch for the Lesser Antilles islands. Julien was the one and I gotta be the two.”<\/p>\n

She said the inspiration she received from Alfred was amazing.<\/p>\n

“It filled me with such pride,” Lafond stated, adding that it was good to see small countries doing “amazing things.”<\/p>\n

“I know St Lucia was going to be so proud and I wanted the same feeling for Dominica,” she went on to say. “So a huge thank you to Julien Alfred for the inspiration …”<\/p>\n

At the competition, Cuba’s Leyanis Perez Hernandez won silver with a leap of 14.90 meters while Ana Peleteiro-Compaore of Spain won bronze with a mark of 14.75.<\/p>\n

2019: Lafond set the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) outdoor record before sustaining a season-ending injury.<\/p>\n

2020: She surpassed the Olympic standard by a centimetre and became the first woman from the OECS from the OECS to make the Tokyo 2020 standard.<\/p>\n

2021: Lafond unleashed the jump of her life (14.52m) and in the =process smashed her outright national record and logged the best jump globally, for the year. Later at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, she set another new national record and personal best with a leap of 14.6 metres.<\/p>\n

2023 World Athletics Championship: Lafond broke the Triple Jump national record with a distance of 14.90 metres at the 2023 World Athletics Championship and reached a commendable fifth place finish in the triple jump finals.<\/p>\n

The National Triple Jumper\u2019s impressive athletic prowess at the World Athletics Championships in Hungary, where she managed to shatter the national record three times, cemented her position as Dominica\u2019s first qualifying athlete for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics.<\/p>\n

Thea Lafond\u2019s journey has been truly inspiring, and she continues to make her country proud with her exceptional performances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thea Lafond created history on Sunday when she became the first Dominican to win a gold medal at a global athletics competition. She needed just two attempts to win gold in the women triple jump at the World Indoor Athletics…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":318376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[235,9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage-carousel","category-news","category-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUPDATE: Thea Lafond becomes Dominica's first world champion in athletics - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/update-thea-lafond-becomes-dominicas-first-world-champion-in-athletics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UPDATE: Thea Lafond becomes Dominica's first world champion in athletics - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thea Lafond created history on Sunday when she became the first Dominican to win a gold medal at a global athletics competition. 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