IT’S TIME TO RECOGNIZE JULIAN ROBINSON

Over the past three years or so Jamaica has produced several outstanding throwers – Traves Smikle , Chad Wright, Ashinia Miller and Frederick Dacres. These four young men have a few things in common. Smikle – a World Youth bronze medalist and Junior Pan Am Games champion and record holder – is the current national junior record holder in the discus; Wright, a CARIFTA champion – was the previous holder. Miller, the Pan Am Champ and record holder – is also the national junior record holder in the shot putt and Dacres is World Youth champion, world leader, and Jamaica’s best ever youth level thrower. They also have something else in common; they all attended Calabar High School and have been coached by Julian Robinson.

Wright is currently enrolled at the University of Nebraska and Smikle might be headed there soon. Miller and Dacres each have at least one more year at Calabar High School to work with Robinson, who should by now be considered Jamaica’s best-ever high school throwing coach. Notwithstanding the success of other local coaches Michael Vassell who has guided female throwers Micara Vassell, Candecia Bernard, and Nadia Alexander among others, and Dr Kevin Gwyn Jones who has guided Munro High School’s successful throwing programme these past few years, it is Robinson who has shone brightest.

Three years ago, shot putters in the region were considered top class if they were capable of throws of 17 metres and over at the under-20 level and about 16 metres for under-17s. ‘Elite’ discus throwers were those who could muster 52 metres at under-20 and  48 metres  at under-17.  Robinson has significantly raised that bar where Miller is approaching 20 metres at under-20 and 18 metres at Under 17. In the discuss, Smikle and Wright have flown past 60 metres, with Smikle throwing 66.88 metres at Champs this year; and Dacres, who won at Champs with a 66-metre throw, setting a new standard at 67.05 at the World Youth Championships this year.

This has never been done before at the high school level in Jamaica. At the National Trials held at the end of June this year, Smikle defeated national record holder Jason Roberts, a man who holds the national record 64.11 metres. Smikle threw 59 metres with the senior weight of 2kgs.

In short, Robinson has transformed his throwers from high school throwers into world class throwers. Smikle’s 66.88 is the sixth best junior throw of all time, Miller’s 19.97m that he threw to win at the Junior Pan Am Games in Florida ranks him in the top 20 in the world this year. If he had thrown as well as he had been throwing in the warm-ups at that meet, Miller would have been ranked in the top 10. Dacres, as was mentioned before, was the world leader going into the World Youth Championships in Lille, France and threw 67,05 to open his lead on the rest of the world. Dacres was so dominant his opening throw would have won the competition by about two metres.

At the regional level, there is only one athlete – Quincy Wilson from Trinidad and Tobago – who is capable of matching Robinson’s athletes. Robinson has developed his own coaching technique pulling from different methods and tweaking them to fill his own requirements and that of his athletes. It has worked well and should continue to work well in the future once his future charges adopt the right attitude and possess the right aptitude.

The possible downside for his success is that it may just be a matter of time before the lure of a more lucrative opportunities take him away from Jamaica. It is time for the JAAA’s or Government or the Sports Development Foundation or all three working together to do what they can to ensure that when those opportunities come knocking for Robinson, that he will at least think twice before departing.