Jamaican discus thrower Traves Smikle is riding high on confidence after a convincing win at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational and is now setting his sights on the upcoming Diamond League meeting in Rabat, Morocco, where he will face a formidable field of world-class competitors.

Smikle, who departs the island on Wednesday for the prestigious Diamond League event on Sunday, expressed both excitement and determination about his first appearance in the series. "Encountering a discus field like the one in Rabat for my first Diamond League meet is pretty exciting and crazy at the same time," said Smikle, who has had five wins on the trot this season. "Not many of the big names are missing and I just need to go out there and compete. It’s a game of distance and these guys are good quality throwers, so I just need to hold my own and compete."

His recent performance at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational demonstrated Smikle's capabilities, as he threw an impressive 66.89m to secure victory over his compatriot Fedrick Dacres. Reflecting on this achievement, Smikle emphasized the importance of consistency and translating his current form to European competitions.

"Before coming into this competition, I felt a little tired during the training sessions in the days before," Smikle noted following his win on Saturday. "Coming out today and having another 66m throw is pretty respectable. I am working on my consistency; what I need to do now is when I go to Europe, I translate this sort of performance and better to be competitive among the field."

Looking ahead to his aspirations for the Olympics in Paris this summer, Smikle is focused on pushing his limits and achieving greater distances. "I want to get 68, 69, 70m in a stadium," he explained. "That is what I am working on."

When asked about the steps needed to reach these targets, Smikle highlighted the importance of dedication, patience, and consistency in training. "It’s going to take more work, patience, and greater consistency," emphasized Smikle, who, so far this season, has won with throws of 67.57m, 67.83m, 65.96m, 66.03m and 66.89m. "If you can build up your level of consistency, then at some point your upper limit must get higher."

2019 World Championship silver medallist, Fedrick Dacres, produced a 66.72m effort to finish fifth in the final of the Men’s discus throw on day three of the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Monday.

The event was won by Sweden’s Daniel Stahl with a championship record 71.46m while Slovenia’s Kristjan Ceh threw 70.02m for second and Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna threw 68.85m for third.

It was an exciting end to the competition as Ceh took the lead with his final round effort before Stahl produced the championship record throw with the very last throw of the competition.

Traves Smikle finished 11^th with a best throw of 61.90m.

Anderson Peters is the only Caribbean male athlete nominated for the 2022 World Athletics Male Athlete of the Year.

The 10 nominees were announced on Thursday. The athletes were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics.

It has been another memorable year for the sport and the nominations reflect some of the standout performances achieved at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22, one-day meeting circuits and other events around the world.

The nominees for 2022 Men’s World Athlete of the Year are (in alphabetical order):

Kristjan Ceh, SLO

- World discus champion

- Diamond League discus champion, throwing a national record 71.27m on the circuit in Birmingham

- European discus silver medallist

Alison dos Santos, BRA

- World 400m hurdles champion

- Diamond League 400m hurdles champion

- Ran a world-leading South American record of 46.29

 Mondo Duplantis, SWE

- World pole vault champion indoors and outdoors

- Diamond League and European pole vault champion

- Improved his world record to 6.19m and 6.20m indoors, and then 6.21m outdoors

 Soufiane El Bakkali, MAR

- World 3000m steeplechase champion

- Diamond League 3000m steeplechase champion

- Unbeaten in 2022, running a world-leading 7:58.28 in Rabat

Grant Holloway, USA

- World 110m hurdles champion

- World indoor 60m hurdles champion

- Diamond League 110m hurdles champion

 Jakob Ingebrigtsen, NOR

- World 5000m champion, world 1500m silver medallist indoors and outdoors

- European 1500m and 5000m champion

- Diamond League 1500m champion in a world-leading 3:29.02

Eliud Kipchoge, KEN

- Improved his world marathon record to 2:01:09

- Berlin Marathon champion

- Tokyo Marathon champion

Noah Lyles, USA

- World 200m champion

- Diamond League 200m champion

- Ran a world-leading national record of 19.31 to move to third on the world all-time list

 Anderson Peters, GRN

- World javelin champion

- Commonwealth javelin silver medallist

- Threw a world-leading NACAC record of 93.07m, moving to fifth on the world all-time list

 Pedro Pichardo, POR

- World triple jump champion with a world-leading leap of 17.95m

- World indoor triple jump silver medallist

- European triple jump champion

 A three-way voting process will determine the finalists.

 The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube this week; a 'like' on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.

 The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25% of the final result.

 Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Monday 31 October. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics.

 The winners will be revealed on World Athletics’ social media platforms in early December.