Long jumper Registe begins epic road trip that could end at Rio Olympics

It's a quiet Saturday morning at The Dome, the massive west side sports facility that stands empty at 8 a.m. but for an athlete and a coach conferring at the long jump pit back in a dark corner by a batting cage. The athlete periodically launches himself down the track and into the sand, and the two review video as they have done for weeks, months and years.

College has come and gone, but the hope for an appearance on the grandest of track and field stages beckons. The athlete heads back to the top of the runway and jumps again.

David Registe's quest for the Olympics begins now in earnest. The Anchorage long jumper is setting off on the road trip to end all road trips. If he achieves a mark of 26 feet, 9 inches in a series of track meets criss-crossing the Western Hemisphere, his journey will conclude in Brazil in August.

Anything less will leave him back in Anchorage watching the Summer Olympics on television. The quest is that simple.

Registe and his long-time coach, Rafael Echavarria, begin their trip with a meet in San Diego on Saturday. A week later the two will be at the Mexican national championships in Monterrey, Mexico. After a short break for training they'll head to Trinidad and Tobago for that country's national championships June 24-26, followed by a visit to the British Virgin Islands for one final meet July 2-3.

"We need the competition," said Echavarria. "We'd like to compete about four to six times before the Olympics."

That's assuming Registe hits a wind-legal mark of 26-9.

"I know I can do it," Registe asserted, noting he led off his season last year in Mexico with a wind-aided mark of 27-2.5.

"That wind was just bad luck. I guarantee it wasn't the wind that carried me over 27 feet. My technique came together perfectly on that jump."

Registe grew up in Palmer but his family hails from the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, so his dual citizenship gives him a better chance to qualify for the Olympics for that country. Echavarria is also now the track and field advisor for Dominica and works with a handful of mainly jumpers and throwers before and during international meets.

"Living in Alaska, every meet we go to requires a lot of travel," Registe said. "In the U.S., guys that are not at the top but have potential don't get help. Getting to the meets and covering expenses is what Dominica does for me."

Both men have international experience by now and remain undaunted by their task.

Registe has competed in two Pan American Games, claiming a silver medal in 2011. He also competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and won a couple of international meets in 2014.

Echavarria himself hurdled for Brigham Young University and his home country of Mexico in the 1970s, competing against future Olympic medalists in the NCAA championships, the World University Games, the Pan American Games and the World Championships. The Olympics eluded Echavarria, but he hopes to get there this summer with Registe.

Registe's first love was basketball, but friends at Colony High School convinced him to try track and field as well his junior year.

"I could run fast, jump high and dunk," he said. With a little bit of coaching in the long jump, "I won state that year, and came back and won senior year."

His personal best of 22-4 did not send recruiters scurrying to Palmer. Registe approached colleges on his own, eventually asking coaches at UAA what he needed to do to continue his new track and field dream at the next level.

The fledgling UAA program took him on, and he began working with then-assistant coach Echavarria, a partnership now in its 10th year.

"We knew he had talent," said Echavarria.

Despite primitive training facilities that had long jumpers sprinting diagonally across the basketball court and crashing into high jump mats place vertically against corner walls —- the Dome had yet to open — Registe thrived. Within two years he won an NCAA Division II national championship.

The construction of the Dome indoor sports facility boosted training possibilities and Registe continued to improve. His training continues there to this day.

While Registe won his national title with a leap of 24-8.5, a later jump of nearly 26 feet changed his outlook on the future.

"Coach E brought up the idea of continuing with this after college," he said. "I hadn't thought of that at all."

Recalled Echavarria, "at that point I knew he was going to be out there in the 26-foot, 27-foot range." Registe's athletic ability and his speed "are a rare combination," he said.

And so Registe, now 28, is content to put a typical life on hold to pursue his dreams. He trains at the Dome six mornings a week for three hours, sometimes more. He returns there afternoons to work with high school athletes through the Alaska Running Academy.

He'd like to put his Physical Education degree to use eventually as a teacher or full-time coach, but that remains in the future. He credits girlfriend Gaynor Johansen for being understanding and supportive.

"I'm pretty track-first right now," he said. "She's an athlete herself, so she gets why I'm chasing the dream.

"… You only have your legs for so long, so work hard while you have them. After that you just can't go back in time."