BIOGRAPHY
Great influences and environments have throughout his sporting life helped develop the running career of Brett Robinson. He has worn the green and gold in global meets at distances 1500m, 3000m, 5000m and cross country and has made the final on four of those five occasions and placed in the top-30 in three world cross country championships – highlighting an ability to perform when it counts.
After a frustrating marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, where a stitch slowed him to 66th place be embarked on terrific 2022 campaign which yield a major goal of the National marathon record. The year included a 10,000m PB, half marathon wins at Launceston, Gold Coast and the National title. Also on the road he set a marathon PB in London in October, two months ahead of breaking Rob de Castella Australian marathon record with a time of 2:07.31. It shaved 20 seconds from the Deek’s mark set in 1986.
“It’s such a great feeling. I’ve gone for this record a few times now, and it’s funny – I always talk about going for it before a race but I didn’t mention it to anyone this time around. I went about my own business and I finally got it. I knew I was capable of it,” Robinson said.
“The current crop of Australian athletes are smashing records at the moment, and this was one of the last long standing ones for us to tick off, so it means a lot to me to finally get this today.”
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Growing up in Canberra, athletics was not Robinson’s primary sport.
“I played soccer as a kid until about 10-years-old,” recalled Robinson. “I got to year six and I had this PE teacher who was into running and he noticed I was pretty good at cross country and he started taking me to some races. They were fun. I went to nationals in U13s and placed 18th there and I enjoyed it and when I got into high school I got a coach. From there I improved every year, I think I was sixth place the next year and I was always in the top-10 or so.”
His interest in running was growing and he would need to make a decision. “By the time I got to 15 I was pretty good at soccer, but I was enjoying more the social side of athletics so I quit soccer and started to concentrate on running. I had pretty good success over 1500m when I was 14 or 15 and getting medals at nationals and success was coming pretty quickly for me.”
At 17 he went to the World Cross Country running the junior event and at 19 the World Junior Championships where he made the 1500m final. “When I placed eighth I thought, I think I can be pretty good at this and I could do this as a career.”
His first influences had been at 15 training alongside London Olympian Martin Dent and with current leading coach Philo Saunders. “All the people I have looked up to I have been close too,” said Robinson.
Now out of school, he pursued his athletics career in Victoria.
“Ryan Gregson said I’m moving to Ballarat to live with Collis Birmingham. He said we have a spare room and you can come down for a few weeks and if you like it you can stay and live there. I thought I’m going to move down I think this is going to be the best thing for me. So for two years I had the opportunity to I live with two of the best runners in Australia.”
Despite an injury in 2012, he qualified for the 2013 world championships. “It happened really quick - it was all thanks to moving down to train with those guys. That’s when I made my big breakthrough.”
Also in 2013 he relocated to Melbourne to be closer to coach Nic Bideau.
“I moved to Melbourne as the group was getting bigger and I spent more time with Nic.”
One of the key differences for Robinson now under Bideau was looking at the big picture.
“He taught me to be smarter in training and not be pushing all the time and rather than train for a goal in six weeks, now train for something in 12 or 18 months.”
His successful international career was certainly off and running. At those 2013 world championships he made the 5000m final and over the next few years ran at two world cross country championships, world indoors, another world championships and in 2015 won the national 5000m and 10,000m double.
It led to his selection for the 2016 Rio Olympics, which was next level for Robinson.
“I always thought when I made my first Olympics I would just be like “yea cool I knew it was going to happen” but when I got the message from my coach telling me I had been selected it was a different feeling to anything else I have achieved in my life.”
In his Olympic debut in Rio he was tremendous progressing to the final. But he had a minor hiccup at the start of the 5000m final where he assumed he would receive new bib/numbers for his second race. The organisers were scurrying around producing a new set of numbers for Robinson, which delayed the start of the race for 15 minutes.
The high of Rio, was followed by a challenging 2017.
He got all the way to the 2017 World Cross Country championships start line in Africa before ruling himself out with his second femoral stress of his career. The injury lingered for over 12 months. Although he returned to some racing in later 2017, there were more setbacks and he missed selection for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. It was not until July 2018 he returned to track racing recording a 5000m PB of 13:15 in Europe. In late 2018 he made his marathon debut in Fukuoka.
"I came back from Europe in 2018 and started training for a marathon in a Japan but I went over and didn't finish that one," Robinson said. “I was running well and I got to 30km feeling fine then my quads just started to get really sore, it was something I'd never experienced before. My quads couldn't take the impact of the road anymore and I was reduced to a shuffle in the space of a kilometre then I got to 32km and pulled the pin. I guess my muscles weren’t quite conditioned for the marathon yet."
In January 2019 he won the Australian trail for the world cross country, kicking off a magnificent 12 months for Robinson before COVID shut down competition. In March 2019 at the world cross country he was the first Australian in 30th place, a month later he clocked an Olympic qualifier in the London marathon running 2:10.55 - the fastest time by an Australian for 12 years, he ran a PB 10,000m in June (27:58.97), in October he was a pace runner in the historic INEOS 159 Challenge where Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge successfully ran under two hours for a marathon, in November he lacing 23rd in the New York marathon, then in February 2020 he become the first Aussies under 60 minutes in the half marathon clocking in 59:57 Japan.
During the COVID effected 2020/21 season, he won the national 10,000m championships held in conjunction with Zatopek.
Selected for the Tokyo Olympics, he graduated to the marathon for his second Olympic appearance, but was disappointed by his own performance placing 66th in 2:24.04.
"I got a stitch and had a few problems with my stomach,” said Brett. “I thought I had it sorted but it came back at 25 kilometres. I just had to jog. It just sucks. My heart rate was down to 150, it was like I was barely trying. It's disappointing and frustrating. I've pulled out of a marathon before and it's not a good feeling. I just wanted to get to the finish line.”
@ 2 Feb 2023 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au
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