As he drove home from the training field at the University of the West Indies a few minutes before 10:00 pm, coach Julian Robinson was an exhausted man. When most people had showered and were off to bed, or relaxing, he had just finished working with his elite squad of throwers. He would have been going non-stop for sixteen hours and must be up at the crack of dawn to do it all over again.

Fedrick Dacres & Travis Smikle

Fedrick Dacres & Travis Smikle

Coach Robinson and his group evolved out of his need to give back to his old school, Calabar High.

“I first wanted to get a medal (with his athletes) at Champs, it happened, then Penn Relays, I did that,” he related to @Athletics_JA. “I then wanted a medal at World Youth, I got that, then World Juniors. It continued with the seniors. At first, I just wanted to qualify somebody, I did that. I kept setting goals and standards and achieving them and it kept me going. I did not set out to do this. I somehow stumbled into it,” he said.

Coach Robinson has a crazy schedule which takes a toll on him.

“I teach for six hours at the Caribbean Maritime University; then I go to Calabar, then I go up to UWI to work with the seniors. My day is not done until I go home and prepare my lesson plan for the next day at school.”

Fourteen years ago while working as an engineer at Digicel, a light went on in his head. He didn’t try to turn it off.

“I was encouraged by a few people to give back. I wanted to give back because when I was attending school, I never had a coach or anybody to look after me so that I could get a scholarship to go to university post Calabar,” said Julian.

“I went back to Calabar to give them something that I never had. And somehow along the way I became a throws coach. I knew I was going to be a throws coach but I didn’t dream that I would eventually be working with seniors. I am happy doing it and it evolved to what I am doing now. After developing some juniors, I then wanted to develop them as seniors and it became a rabbit hole,” he said laughing.

His next goal is to win a gold medal at the senior global level. However, he is quick to point out that it is pretty difficult.

“We who are doing field events in places like Jamaica have it even harder now, especially after Covid (19),” Robinson informed. He pointed out that while Jamaica was under lockdown for over a year, most top athletes worldwide, especially in Europe, were training. “When you don’t use it you lose it,” he said. “The Europeans who we were beating before Covid were ahead of us after Covid because they didn’t stop working.”

Though his charges have started the season on a tear, with Travis Smikle and Fredrick Dacres throwing over 68m and 66m, respectively, at the King of the Ring meet on the weekend of February 11, 2023, he is cautious, if a bit wary.

“I wonder if any elite throwing group in the world faces the challenges that we face? I’ll do it until one day I’ll get up and decide that I can’t do it anymore,” he lamented. “One day ‘I’ll just say I’ve done enough. It’s really not very encouraging but I do it because I love it and I’m helping young men who are invested. The people we are competing against are full-time throwers and coaches. While I’m here travelling home minutes to 10, they are home sleeping and preparing to practice tomorrow fully fresh. As I said before, I did not set out to do this but I went down a rabbit hole and here I am.”

He must now stay focused as he navigates his way through night traffic. Not an easy road.