Dorchester Athletic Club is very saddened to learn of the death of its former athlete Robinson Okumu at the age of just 25. His untimely death occurred in Genoa where he was competing at an international meeting where he hoped to lower his personal best 100m time (10.65 sec) to below the qualifying time for the next Olympics.
Rob joined Dorchester AC in 2012 at the age of twelve and his prodigious talent was immediately very evident. He set out his stall by winning the Dorset Schools Championship Under-13 Boys 100m in a time of 13.2secs. The following year he lowered that time to 11.7. Greater feats were to come in 2014 when he was crowned a triple Under-15 South West champion in the 100m (11.39w), 200m (23.21) and long jump (5.95). He added to these achievements by also winning the South of England 100m title (23.34).
Rob continued to accumulate championship victories as an Under-17 competitor but his greatest achievement was to come at the 2015 English Schools Championships at Gateshead. In his first year in this age group Rob ran outstandingly to reach the 100m final where he finished 5th in 10.90secs. The next year he was to do better still in finishing third, just 0.08 seconds behind the winner.
Rob’s burgeoning talent was recognised nationally when, in 2018, UKAthletics invited him to compete in the Great North City Games in Gateshead. Here he rubbed shoulders with some of Britain’s finest international sprinters.
Over the next couple of years Robinson’s interest in athletics waned somewhat as the lure of football, where he was a fine player, and educational changes influenced his athletic participation. Nonetheless he continued to win Dorset sprint titles.
In 2019 Rob left Dorchester AC and joined Bournemouth AC but his frequency of participation continued to decline. A four-year interregnum ended in 2024 with his return to competition. That year he produced his fastest, albeit windy, 100m time of 10.56 together with a legal time of 10.73.
This year (2025) became even more active as he travelled Europe in the hope of lowering his 100m time towards the Olympic qualifying mark. On his travels Rob further improved his best legal 100m time to 10.65 seconds at an international meet in Malta in June. At the same event he also reduced his 200m time with a winning time of 21.47. His next and sadly last venture was to Celle Ligure near Genoa, Italy.
His final run was in the 200m in which he finished second in 21.61.His tragic death in Italy was a great loss to British athletics and to his friends and fellow athletes at his Dorchester and Bournemouth clubs. Not only was he a fine athlete but also a charming and charismatic young man with a wonderful sense of humour. We will miss him.
Donations to Robinson’s repatriation fund to bring his body back to the UK and onward to Kenya may be given at https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-in-loving-memory-of-robinson-okumu
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