By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net    

ALTHOUGH he didn’t achieve his ultimate goal, Bahamian Kendrick Thompson said he was still extremely pleased with his men’s decathlon bronze-medal performance at the Decastar Meet over the weekend.

Competing against a top-notch field of competitors from around the world at the Stade Pierre Paul Bernard in Talence, France, Thompson accumulated a total of 8,177 points in the gruelling, 10-event competition.

He was beaten out by Puerto Rico’s Ayden Owens-Delerme, who captured the gold with 8,478 and Estonia’s Johannes Erm, who got the silver with 8,236.

While none of the competitors surpassed the qualifying standard of 8,550 points for the World Championship in Tokyo, Japan in September,, Thompson, with how seasons best, moved into 17th place in the world standings.

If there are not enough automatic qualifiers for the event, World Athletics will rely on the rankings by the decathletes to fill out the field of 24 competitors for the championships.

Thompson, the 27-year-old former national record holder who survived a series of injuries last year to return to competition this year, admitted that it wasn’t what he expected, but he was satisfied with his final outcome in France.

“It was a great performance. Afterall, I scored over eight thousand points,” he said. “It wasn’t the wscore that I wanted, but I’m happy with it because it was a season’s best and I improved in some of the events.”

After completing Saturday’s first day of the first five events in second place behind Owens-Delerme, Thompson struggled in two of his final five events on day two on Sunday in the discus throw and the pole vault, which eventually dropped him into third place.

“I got a little carried away in the discus with some ups and downs with my throws and the pole vault,” he said. “I am expecting to get some poles for the pole vault, so once I get them, I will be working on improving in that event.”

Thompson was second overall in the 100 metres in a season’s best of 10.65 seconds for 940 points; second in the long jump with a personal best of 25-feet, 3 1/4-inches or 7.70m (985 pts); 9th in the shot put with a season’s best of 48-1 1/4 or 14.66m (769 pts); tied for seventh in the high jump at 6-5 1/2 or 1.97m (776 bpts) and third in the 400m in 48.56 (882 pts) on day one.

On day two, he was second in the 110m hurdles in a personal best of 14.19 (950 pts); 13th in the discus throw with 131-2 or 39.98m; ninth in the pole vault with 14-10 1/4 or 4.53m (769 pts); won the javelin throw with 201-7 or 61.44m (760 pts) and ended up seventh in the grueling 1,500m in 4:39.73 (682 pts).

He noted that the competition was extremely tough with all of the competitors coming out to produce their A-game.

“We had guys from all over Europe there, including Germany, Switzerland, Estonia, even the United States and Puerto Rico,” Thompson pointed out.

“So we had a strong field there, a lot of well known decathletes there.”

Throughout the competition, Thompson said they were allowed to play their favorite music and he selected a Bahamian song, Man-In-Law by Keno Hall. 

“Every time they played the song, the crowd was standing on their feet and cheering me on,” he said. “They loved it. I think it was the number one song played there.”

As you return home, Thompson said he will take a week off to recuperate before he starts training again, working specifically on his discus and pole vault.

“If I can do that, my scores can change tremendously,” he said. “In all of my other events, I was right up there at the top of the standings. Those two events are my priority to get my scores higher.”

Thompson will have enough time to prepare for his next event, which will be the North American, Central American and Caribbean Track and Field Championships, which is scheduled for August 15-17 at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex in Grand Bahama.

“I just have to get my body recovered from the meet this weekend,” he said. 

As he sit into the ranking for the World Cham[pionwhips, Thompdson said he just hoped to continue to push forward to get back to the World Championships.

“I really believe that I could go for the gold this time around,” he projected. “This was a good t4st for me and I think despite not performing well in the discus and the pole vault, I proved that I am right there.”

Thompson thanked the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations, headed by president Drumeco Archer; Kermit Taylor and Laura Charlton for their assistance in getting him to France.