OLDS — Local throwing athlete Rachel Andres’ hopes of qualifying for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo remain high after she threw a provincial record and new personal best of 58.78 metres (m) in the discus.
Andres threw that distance during a meet in Calgary on Wednesday, April 21.
“Not the Olympic standard yet, but moving in the right direction,” Andres wrote in an email afterward.
The automatic Olympic qualifying distance is 63.50 m.
After being postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Summer Olympics are slated to occur July 23 - Aug. 8 this year.
On Saturday, April 24, Andres threw a 57.78 m during a meet in Edmonton.
“It was close to the Wednesday meet and (I’m) establishing some upper-level consistency now,” she said.
Andres was recently supposed to compete in Calgary, but that meet was cancelled due to poor weather.
“No point in competing if we don’t have the possibility of furthering marks towards the Olympics,” she said.
As of April 25, Andrews was waiting for her marks to be uploaded on the Athletics.ca and World Athletics sites to see how her world ranking has been affected by her latest results.
Her next competition is slated to occur May 9.
