Justin Smith has been in and around athletics for more than two decades.

The 33-year-old was a good sprinter back in the day – he ran at national schoolboy level in his native South Africa – and has been coaching for more than 10 years.

Unsurprisingly, given his background, the one-time Hartpury student’s specialism is sprinting, and he’s been looking after the sprinters at Gloucester Athletic Club since 2012.

“I’ve got a group of 20 to 25 very talented athletes in the summer,” he said. “They are from under-13s through to Masters, I run three sessions a week.”

One of those athletes is Amari Cambridge, a 12-year-old King’s School pupil who Smith rates very, very highly.

And it’s easy to see why because Amari has been smashing Gloucester AC records for fun.

“She’s completely demolished them,” said Smith, who still runs for Gloucester AC himself. “She’s set records at 60 metres indoor, 100 metres indoor, 200 metres indoor. Outdoors she’s set records in the 75, 100, 150 and 200 metres.

“She’s an exceptional talent. Nobody in the club’s history has whitewashed the events in the under-13s like she has and she’ll probably do it in the under-15s even as a 13-year-old.

“Normally you’ll get an outstanding 60 metres indoor runner or 100 metres outdoors, but she’s outstanding across everything.

So what is her best distance?

“Her standout event is the 200 metres,” said Smith. “She probably won’t agree because she’s still quite small, but her best time is 27.2 and she’s likely to go under 27 which is phenomenal. The best time in the country for her age group is 26.6.”

Amari is still very young, of course, but Smith is keen to champion her successes so far. 

And he is confident there are many more to come, not least because Amari already has very clear targets.

“Her dream is the Olympics,” said Smith. “She dreams of running for Great Britain, she dreams of being right up there.

“A lot of athletes want to have fun and enjoy the sport but for Amari, winning is fun, running fast is fun, breaking records is fun.”

If she is to make it all the way to the top she is sure to face some tough times, of course, but Smith believes that she has the tools to deal with adversity if and when it strikes.

“She’s got one of the best mindsets I’ve seen in a young athlete,” he said.

“She’s fearless, she won’t back down, she’s a very competitive athlete.

“It won’t always be smooth going, there will be challenges along the way and she’ll need to learn from them and adapt.”

Smith, like all coaches, works hard on the mental side.

“My philosophy is that athletes should always show humility,” he said. “It’s about education, it takes a lot of hard work to achieve anything in sport.”

Smith, who has his own business called Speed Project Training, is not just an athletics coach because he also does some speed training with the rugby teams at Hartpury.

He’s team manager of the men’s flagship, who play one level below the best in the land in the Championship, and is also their analyst.

When he spoke to The Local Answer he was also looking forward to an eight-week coaching programme with Cheltenham Tigers Rugby Club.

“I’m developing my reputation as a coach and as a sprint coach,” said Smith, who lives in Gloucester with his partner Ella Hitchcox, a former Cheltenham Town and Forest Green Rovers footballer, and their baby daughter Isla.

He’d like to continue coaching Amari for many years to come, of course, having started coaching her some 18 months or so ago.

“You don’t get talent like Amari’s very often,” he said. “It’s exciting, you never know what she is going to do, she surprises me every day.

“I don’t know how far she will go but at the moment she is breaking all my predictions.”