- April 25, 2024
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PALM COAST — When it comes to track-and-field, the 100-meter dash is one of the most well-known events. It always features the fastest runners, and who doesn’t want to be known as the fastest?
Most do, including Flagler Palm Coast’s Jimmie Robinson.
But Robinson isn’t like many 100 sprinters. FPC coach David Halliday said most 100-meter dash sprinters view themselves as “divas.”
Not Robinson, though. Instead, he’s laidback. He’s confident in himself, but he’s reserved. He isn’t flashy.
That hasn’t stopped him from bursting onto the 100 meters scene this season, though. Robinson, a junior, wasn’t able to compete in one of the most glamorous sprinting events his first two years because of a serious hip flexor injury. It cost him his freshman and sophomore seasons.
This year, though, he’s healthy. And it’s showing on the stopwatch and on the track.
Last weekend, in the seventh-annual Spruce Creek Invitational, Robinson logged an 11.02-second 100-meter dash, placing him second in a race packed with speed. Seabreeze’s Charles Nelson and Josh Stevens were also featured in the finals, but Robinson finished ahead of both of them.
Robinson took sixth at the Lake Brantley Invitational on March 1, finishing in 11.18 seconds. He won the Hammock Hardware East Coast Classic, though, crossing the finish line in 11.14 seconds.
“I feel healthy,” Robinson said Tuesday, as he took a break before running more practice sprints. “I did therapy for a couple of months, and I feel stronger.”
Robinson’s goal is to break the 11-second barrier this season. Doing so would put him in the running to place at the state meet, Halliday said.
Halliday, who was able to recite Robinson’s times this year off the top of his head, said he thinks the success Robinson had during football season has translated to his success on the track.
It’s all about confidence.
But perhaps what has impressed Halliday the most was what Robinson did at the Spruce Creek meet, which ended up being his fastest 100-meter dash time so far this year.
Robinson ran the prelims for the 100, the 200 and the 4x100-meter relay. After those three, he came back to run in the 100 meters finals, which was run into a head wind.
“You usually don’t see that,” Halliday explained of Robinson’s number of races.
But why did Robinson’s time decrease despite all the running he had already done?
“I just think he’s starting to put all the pieces together,” Halliday said. “Every year, kids get older and stronger and they start to figure it out. Confidence builds. You have success; you get more confident. He had a real successful football season, and I think that confidence is exuding over into track.”
The smile on Robinson’s face says it all: He’s having fun while he’s running fast. Now, if he can crack his goal of getting into the 10s, he’ll be even happier. Halliday said Robinson will do it.
“I think I will, too,” Robinson said.
