Shadae Lawrence is unbeaten in the discus competition in 2021 and has already achieved the Olympic qualifying standard but according to her coach, Julian Robinson, there is still a lot to be accomplished if she is to be competitive at the Olympic Games this summer.
The 25-year-old Lawrence who’s personal best 65.05m is the Jamaican national record, has four wins from four starts this season. She threw 63.75m to open her season at the USF Bulls Invitational on March 20. Six days later she uncorked a winning throw of 62.88 at the Florida State Relays.
Then on April 3, she threw 57.76m at the USATF Sprint Summit and then just last weekend, April 16, she won with 57.86 at the Tom Jones Invitational.
While pleased with the victories, Robinson has specific goals for the talented Jamaican in the weeks leading to the major event this year.
“What I am working on with her is for her to have a lower limit of 65m. I think a lower limit of 65 is possible,” Robinson said.
“It’s hard to coach remotely but we are making progress. I think it’s possible for her to get to the Olympics averaging 65.”
Robinson knows what it takes to win medals at the international level having guided Fedrick Dacres to the World U18 discus title in 2011, World U20 title in 2012, the Commonwealth Games and NACAC titles in 2018, Pan American gold in 2019 and the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships.
He has also guided Traves Smikle and Basil Bingham to regional medals.
The coach, who has been working with the Kansas State and Colorado State alum since late 2019, tells Sportsmax.TV that when he first began working with her, he realized that there was a lot to get done.
“With Shadae, one of the things I observed with her was that she desires to be world-class, and I have observed the training of world-class women and when I compared her strength and power levels there were nowhere close to where the world-class women were and they are still not there,” he said.
“It’s a process and she has gotten stronger, so that is one of the things that we continue to work on. You cannot do business without strength and power.
“We have also been working on her technique. It’s not an easy job because to acquire technical skills takes time so we have to be careful because as we work on the technique we are still competing. Even in the offseason, we had to be careful because technical changes take time but we have been working on it and she has gotten better. She has been doing a better job of keeping her throwing arm behind her. She is executing the throw much better but she still has significant room for improvement.”
Working on the mental side of her game is also an area of focus. “I am stressing to her to keep it simple and if we succeed in those areas she should do well,” he said.
Leighton Levy is a journalist with 28 years’ experience covering crime, entertainment, and sports. He joined the staff at SportsMax.TV as a content editor two years ago and is enjoying the experience of developing sports content and new ideas. At SportsMax.tv he is pursuing his true passion - sports.
Excelsior leads Jamaican 1-2-3 in Championship of America High School Boys 4x100m at Penn Relays
Excelsior High emerged victorious in the Championship of America High School Boys 4x100m on the third and final day at the 128th Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Their quartet of Ryeem Walker, Damor Miller, Malike Nugent and Lennon Green combined to run 40.45 to secure the school’s first win in the event since 1967.
Kingston College (Daniel Clarke, Yourie Lawrence-Clarke, Nyrone Wade, Marcinho Rose) were second in 40.53 and Herbert Morrison (Ky-Mani Hemmings, Tavaine Stewart, Chance Segree, De Andre Daley) completed a Jamaican 1-2-3 with 40.56 in third.
Smith produces season’s best to win long jump at Texas Invitational
Texas junior Ackelia Smith produced an NCAA leading performance to take top spot on day one of the Texas Invitational at the Mike A. Myers Stadium on Friday.
The 22-year-old reigning NCAA champion produced a season’s best 7.10m, her first jump over 7m this season, to win ahead of Trinidadian Puma athlete Tyra Gittens (6.72m) and UTSA’s Ida Breigan (6.65m).
This is a welcome return to form for Smith who suffered a torn hamstring at the NCAA Indoor Championships in early March.
Smith was Jamaica’s national champion in the long jump in 2022 and was a finalist in both the long and triple jump at that year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Paulino extends 400m winning streak to seven in Shanghai
Dom Rep’s Marileidy Paulino followed up her triumph at the season’s Diamond League opener in Xiamen last week with another victory at the Shanghai Diamond League on Saturday.
The reigning World champion produced 50.89 to win ahead of American Talitha Diggs who ran 51.77 and Bajan two-time World Championship bronze medallist Sada Williams who ran 52.00 in third.
Paulino’s winning streak in the 400m has now stretched to seven races.
It was déjà vu in the women’s 100m hurdles as reigning Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho Quinn just pipped World Indoor 60m hurdles champion and world record holder Devynne Charlton on the line, just as it played out in Xiamen last week.
Camacho-Quinn ran 12.63 compered to Charlton’s 12.64. Two-time World champion Danielle Williams was third in 12.74.
The men’s 110m hurdles saw American Daniel Roberts get his second win in a row to kick off the Diamond League season. His winning time was 13.12, comfortably ahead of Japan’s Shunsuke Izumiya (13.23) and Olympic champion Hansle Parchment’s season’s best 13.26.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
