About the UK Javelin Association

David has been involved in the Javelin Throw for over 20 years and has a broad range of knowledge and experience relating to the event. As a talented all round sportsperson, it was his father Phil that discovered he had a natural affinity with throwing things and the transition to Javelin Throwing became fairly swift. Phil introduced David to Wilf Paish and later John Trower which led to a very successful throwing career as a young athlete from that point, winning the English Schools Championships and the AAAs U20 title 4 years in succession (a feat that had never and has still never been repeated). He also went on to win the World Junior Championship in 1998 and gained further success in 1999 winning silver in the European Junior Champs & finished his junior career with a throw of 77.48m; a throw bettered only by our greatest ever male Javelin Thrower Steve Backley. The high point of his injury plagued senior career came in 2006 when he represented England at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. He has since gone on to focus on his coaching career, and currently coaches a number of young athletes based primarily in Yorkshire as well as around other various parts of the UK. This in addition to supporting the development of the UK Javelin Association.

David graduated from University in 2005 with an MSc in Sports Biomechanics. He works for the English Institute of Sport as a Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach leading the physical development/ preparation programmes for British Diving and Rugby League. He also supports England Athletics with various coach education workshops and has recently become a Tutor and Assessor for the United Kingdom Strength & Conditioning Association (UKSCA).

"In my time had exposure to the best athletes and coaches in the World of Javelin Throwing and the knowledge and experience gained from these opportunities puts me in a strong position to lead the UK Javelin Association forwards to truly become the voice of British Javelin Throwing."

Our founding member and one of the country's leading javelin coaches has a long and distinguished list of awards, qualifications and successful athletes under her belt and not just in javelin throwing.

Carolyn has been working hard to develop budding young athletes for over 40 years after she started coaching youngsters at Cheltenham and County Harriers back in 1969.

Among the many success stories who can count Franks as a coach and mentor is Cheltenham and County Harrier javelin star James Campbell. James, who has been competing on the national stage and internationally for Scotland, first came into Carolyn's throwing group aged 14.

Tom Dobbing, as the Deputy Chairman and Co founder for the UK Javelin Association, started athletics at age 14. Having first identified a reasonable throwing arm playing cricket, he quickly took up javelin throwing at school where he topped the U17 and U20 rankings representing GB U20's on several occasions and winning the ESAA Senior Boys Javelin event in 1992. Commissioning into the Royal Air Force and a few injuries later, Tom surfaced onto the throwing scene again in 1998 being coached by Mike McNeil and training with Mark Roberson and Goldie Sayers. From this period he won the Scottish Championships on several occasions, gained 12 Scottish vests and finally broke the Scottish Record in 2003. On top of this Tom consistently retained the RAF Javelin title for 14 straight years and also won a host of Combined Service titles in this period as well.

Retiring from throwing in 2007, Tom took up coaching, helping a brace of athletes. He is now a qualified coach with an MSc in Applied Sports and Exercise Science, imparting the lessons he has learnt from spending many years learning from the best.

Clifton's inspiration to begin athletics came from his grandfather, Jimmy Green, who founded Athletics Weekly magazine in 1945. He began his javelin career at the age of 10 after years of cross country running and long distance track events. After a school sports day throwing the cricket ball past the field and into the neighbouring garden and smashing a greenhouse, a tryout for the javelin quickly ensued. His first coach, Mark Chapman quickly developed Clifton's technique and a promising young javelin thrower set his sights firmly on success, winning the English Schools, AAA's championships through the age groups and being invited to throw for England and GB Juniors.

Clifton has now come back to throwing following a 9 year absence and is dedicated not only to making the most of his return but is determined to work with the Association to ensure that all our talented throwers are given every opportunity to succeed and have the Javelin event be one that again stands out in British athletics.

Within I.T. Clifton has had the benefit of having worked with numerous Global brands on developing websites, marketing strategies as well as user interfaces for portable devices. Over the past 6 years he has worked with Sony, Vodafone, 20th Century Fox, GSMA, Alcatel, Informa plc, BBC, Stan James Bookmakers, Betfair, BG Group, Dolphin Energy, BP and the Trinity Mirror Group to name just a few. His main area of expertise is in front end web development and user interface design, although having also worked extensively in a marketing and publishing environment, designing brochures, catalogues, stationary and logos as well as organising marketing strategies are areas which come as second nature.