Kevon Robinson of Fogah Road High celebrating victory in the Class Three Boys 800 metres final at the National Stadium on Saturday's final day of the GraceKennedy/ISSA Boys and Girls' Championships. Johnson's winning time was 2:02.06. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Foga Road High School had plenty to be happy about on Monday, April 6, when their 'favourite son', Kevon Robinson, arrived at school the first day after winning a gold in the 800m Class Three event at the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletic Championships, at the National Stadium.

They had a small celebratory function to show how proud they were of his victory, the school's first gold-medal success at Champs.

"He promised me that he would take home the gold," said Kerinth Campbell, the school's principal, who sported a cap with 'Kevon' written on it.

First gold medal

The proud educator was present at Champs to witness Campbell's feat.

"His gold medal alone gave the school nine points and placed them 20th out of 97 schools that participated in the Boys' Champs. He will forever be remembered as the first student to give Foga Road High School its first gold medal in the Boys' Champs," Campbell added.

Kevon Robinson had won the Ministry of Health Caribbean Wellness 5K Run for the 12-13 age group last September, when he had just begun his preparation for Champs.

"We trained four times for the week in the mornings before school from 8-10:30," Robinson noted, and by the time it came around to Champs, he was certain to win.

"I was very confident. The only competition I saw was the boy from KC (Dominique Powell, who placed second)," he admitted.

Confidence is not strange to Robinson, who believes in his running abilities.

"I used to as a little boy run with my cousins who were all bigger than me and who were athletes at school. I used to beat them," he said of his foray into the sport.

The son of Paula Young and Warren Robinson and grandson to Neville Young, Kevon's coach, Milton Sergeant, said Kevon's talent almost got lost in the system as the coach at his primary school once told the youngster that 'him good fi nutten'."

"Although I knew I could run, the coach at (primary) school said I couldn't, so I wasn't taken seriously until high school," he went on.

"He is a super athlete," stated Sergeant. "He can run the 100, 200, 400 and, of course, the 800.

Sergeant added: "Because of his build, he is better suited as a long-distance runner, but he does well at the 400m also. I opted to run him for the 800m, which is his better event, because the two finals - the 400m and the 800m - were on the same day and just a couple hours apart. I wanted him to be well rested for the 800m."

Robinson, who lists his principal, coach and also his best friend Tevin Dixon (a fellow athlete), as his inspiration, is a tall, slim, unassuming youngster in appearance and seemingly untouched by the new fame that now surrounds him.

Professional athlete

No stranger to long-distance running, Robinson won the Ministry of Health Caribbean Wellness 5K Run for the 12-13 age group, which was held last September. Not surprisingly, Robinson, who admits to being a 'B' student, lists physical education as his favourite subject.

He wants to be a professional athlete when he is grown up, and a soldier.

Although his next challenge will be the Carifta Trials next year, he hopes to go to the Olympics by 2016.

His principal is already thinking along the same lines and said by that time, she would have retired.

The school sent an eight-member team to the games. Sergeant is confident that there are many more surprises to come out of Foga Road High School but for the time being, he expects only great things from their favourite son, Kevon Robinson.