THROWS COACH Julian Robinson sees top-level discus medals in Jamaica's future. Robinson, who coaches Fedrick Dacres and Traves Smikle, also believes that Jamaica has a trio of newcomers who will make the country proud.
Daniel Stahl, the giant Swede, triumphed at both the 2019 World Championships in Doha and last year's Olympics in Tokyo with marks of 68.90 and 67.59 metres, respectively, but Robinson thinks Jamaica can compete with the best.
"I think we have the potential not only to have representatives at the next World Championships you know, but we have the quality people to contend for a place in the final and to medal, notwithstanding those 69s and 70s that the Europeans are throwing, I think we have the talent to get there," proclaimed Robinson.
In Tokyo, Chad Wright became the first Jamaican to reach an Olympic men's discus final. Before that, Dacres won silver at the 2019 World Championships final after leading one-two finishes with 2017 World finalist Smikle at the 2019 Pan-American Games and the 2018 Commonwealth Games. That body of work led Robinson to say, "I think Jamaica, little Jamaica, and of 3 million or a little bit less, we have some of the best men’s discus throwers in the world."
In addition, Ralford Mullings and Roje Stona forged silver medals at the World Under-20 Championships and the NCAA Outdoors. Coached at Kingston College by Caniggia Raynor, Mullings came within touching distance of Smikle's national junior record and now attends Arizona State University.
"I expect great things from Ralford," Robinson explained, in part because of the move to Arizona.
According to Robinson, Mullings could benefit from training with NCAA champion Turner Washington, son of 1999 World Champion Anthony, and competing in the same athletic conference as Lithuania's World Under-20 winner Miklos Alekna, whose father Virgilijus was Olympic champion in 2000 and 2004.
He noted that Stona now has Daniel Cope, a winner at Boys and Girls’ Championships, as a teammate at Clemson University.
"Stona is very talented and Stona is now being joined by Cope from Petersfield, so he has a good training partner to push him, so I expect the men's discus event to be very competitive, and then there is Chad Wright with coach (Michael) Vassell," Robinson pointed out.
To top things off, there is also 2018 World Under-20 champion Kai Chang, who is coming back from a knee injury.
"I expected him to rival any top thrower in Jamaica and Kai slipped down a stairs and tore his ACL," Robinson said of the mishap that damaged Chang's anterior cruciate ligament and cost him a chance to bid for a place on Jamaica's Olympic team last year.
Chang's knee has been surgically repaired and he is on his way back to full fitness. He threw 64.49 metres before the mishap, to be number 2 on the 2021 Jamaican performance list.