BYDGOSZCZ, Poland - Jamaican Olympian Clive Terrelonge is making a name for himself as a track and field coach.

Terrelonge, the 1995 800m World Indoor Champion, is in Bydgoszcz this week with his University of Connecticut charge Trisha-Ann Hawthorne who will compete in the 200m and the 4x100m relay at the 12th World Junior Championships here.

Former 800m world indoor champion and current coach Clive Terrelonge (right) chats with former Bermudan athlete (now Netherlands coach) Troy Douglas at the warm-up track ahead of tomorrow's start of the World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Terrelonge coaches Jamaican sprinter Trisha-Ann Hawthorne. (Photo: Dania Bogle)

In his fourth season as sprint and hurdles coach at UConn, Terrelonge coached freshman Hawthorne to gold in both sprint events at the Big East and ECAC Championships in the United States college circuit.

"First season was rough but the next year they started improving.the second year we were 11th of 16 teams in our conference then we went to 3rd," Terrelonge said.

The University of Connecticut Huskies won the Big East Indoor Track & Field Championships this year and finished fourth outdoor in addition to winning both the indoor and outdoor titles in the ECAC Championships.

"A lot of it had to do with the sprinters and hurdlers so we went from being in the back to the top," the two-time Olympian told the Observer.

Terrelonge has been coaching for close to seven years. The NCAA Division III Hall of Famer suffered a stress fracture in 1999 and his career hung in limbo before he finally decided to call it a day in 2001.

He spent some time coaching at Brown University in Rhode Island and was invited to join the coaching team in Connecticut.

"It was two years training and then it just became frustrating and then I just thought it has to be a sign because the injury just kept recurring...and after seeing many doctors and no matter how much time off I took once, I started training again and it just came back," he said.

Terrelonge, 36, who represented Jamaica in the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, said he is surprised that he found coaching to be rewarding.

"I thought I would never be a coach, but helping the team was so rewarding I just continued."

The former athlete took the time this week to join the Jamaica team at the WJC in Poland to help coach Hawthorne.
"She is representing Jamaica, my country, and is one of the youngest on the team, so that was the motivation," he said.

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