MONTEGO BAY, St James — Marlon Gayle, a former middle distance runner turned coach, has been the quiet unassuming force behind the rise of the throwing dynamo that the Edwin Allen High School track and field programme has become.

At last week’s 102nd staging of the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships, Edwin Allen girls won four of the five throwing events on the schedule, setting three records in the process.

Tara-sue Barnett, who earlier this season set a new national junior record 50.93m in the discus throw at the Ben Francis Invitational, the first time a schoolgirl had gone over the 50m mark, battled teammate and defending champion Danniel Thomas in the Class One discus throw. This was one of the most exciting competitions of the entire championships, as both combined to break the previous mark six times.

Barnett, who is currently representing Jamaica at the Carifta Games in Bermuda, won the gold medal with 50.765m to Thomas’ 50.42m.

Thomas went on to win the shot put Open with a new meet record 14.47m, as well as the javelin throw, while Paul Ann Gayle broke her own Class Three discus throw record 42.62m, below her personal best 45.45m done at Central Champs earlier.

The Edwin Allen throwers accounted for nearly 80 of the 365 points the team accumulated as they steamrolled their way to their first-ever title.

Prior to the arrival of Gayle to Frankfield, Clarendon, in 2008, Edwin Allen were known as a sprint powerhouse and were never deep enough to challenge Holmwood Technical for the Girls’ Champs title.

Gayle, who attended the Cuban International School of Physical Education and Sports, told the Jamaica Observer in an interview he asked his supervisor in Havana to allow him to switch from coaching runners to the field events as he realised there was not much concentration on that area in Jamaica, despite the massive potential of the athletes.

Prior to this he said he had coached athletes who ran 10.6 seconds in the 100m, 21.8 in the 200m and a Kenyan who he got to run 1 minute 48.00 seconds in the 800m.

At Edwin Allen, he said, he started with athletes such as Vanessa Levy and present captain Sasha-gay Marston, and said despite the lack of equipment and space to work with, he used a lot of “improvisation” and the commitment of the athletes to get the desired results.

While the exploits of the Edwin Allen throwers opened a lot of eyes at Girls’ Champs, Gayle told the Observer he was not surprised by their performances, but rather that it was expected, given the level of training they had put in.

If there was one performance he was more pleased with, it was in the Class Three discus throw where Gayle not only broke the record, but another thrower, Janell Fullerton came fourth.

While he has established the throwing programme, Gayle’s next task will be to get the jumps up to scratch, the one area where Edwin Allen showed any vulnerability this year, and were outscored by Vere Technical.