While the world and his wife are freaking out over Yohan Blake’s race against Tyson Gay, I am not the least bit surprised; it has been a long time coming. Check his track record; the writing was on the track.
Two years ago, Caribbean TrackLife decided to make the then 18-yr-old Blake its cover story at a time when he wasn’t “hot” in some people’s estimation. Why? Some critics asked long after we published his story and he had some less-than-winning performance as a result of injury and otherwise. Some thought the younger Grenadian Kirani James would have made a more noteworthy cover; others thought Blake was “burned out”, “done” or even destroyed by his coach. In essence, they were ready to discard him; we were looking beyond the here-and-now and stood by our intuitive decision.
We believed that as a Class 1 sprinter, there was just something about him that told us where he was headed if he stayed healthy. That “something” was revealed to us when we interviewed him. It was as combination of fire, hunger and determination.
Quite a starry-eyed schoolboy from the country as well as Spanish Town, Jamaica’s former capital city, Blake exhibited a youthful exuberance about running and excelling at it that we had never seen before. Blake left St. Jago High and subsequently his coach Danny Hawthorne. The split from Hawthorne and switch to Glen Mills was, however, reportedly not quite amicable. Although we haven’t spoken to him on the subject, his seemingly hasty departure and decision to turn pro could have been out of eagerness to fulfill his dream of representing Jamaica well at the highest level and use his talent and passion to succeed.
Well, last year Blake’s new training alongside Usain Bolt kicked him up several notches. He had left high school with a personal best of 10.11 secs in the 100m and 20.62 in the 200m and later joined the 100m sub-10 group while competing abroad. He’s also the second leg runner of the Bolt-led Racers Track Club’s sprint relay team. That quartet clocked 37.40 in London before the unfortunate situation after the Jamaica nationals last year, when he was named among five athletes tested positive for methylxanthine, a substance with similar structure to tuaminoheptane, a banned stimulant. Blake received a 3-month suspension that ended in December.
Enter 2010, and a physically and mentally pumped-up Yohan Blake returned with a vengeance. At the February Gibson Relays in Kingston, Racers won in 38.08 (record), but at the University of Technology meet, (also in Kingston) the week prior to the April Penn Relays in the US, the baton exchange between him and Mario Forsythe cost them victory. At Penns, Blake ran a flying back stretch on the all-Racers team (anchored by Bolt) that represented Jamaica. The quartet clocked 37.90 secs to establish a new meet record and remained the focus of attention for well over an hour.
After the race, Blake asked that we hold back on saying much about him as a lot of work was left to be done. Indeed it was an open secret that he was on his way when he beat some big names last year and was just out-dipped at the line at the Adidas New York Grand Prix by T&T’s Richard Thompson, whom Blake had run down.
After the race, he told us how fulfilling it was for him to be running with the “big boys”, expressing that Bolt has taught him a lot about relaxing and enjoying his races. Clearly, now graduated to a “big boy” himself, Blake recently raced Bolt in Europe, this time he stayed with him for some 80 meters to post 9.96 secs for 2nd. He also ran against Bolt and Asafa Powell and place 3rd in 9.95.
But his latest Diamond League race on July 22, was the one that made everyone stand up and take notice. Although he had a 200m personal best of only 20.60 and he had not run a competitive 200m this season, Blake said he was told by his coach only two weeks ago that he’d be running the half-lap event. Not surprisingly, he took on the challenge as usual.
Drawn in Lane 8 with the likes of American Tyson Gay, Wallace Spearmon, Shawn Crawford and Xavier Carter in his blind corner, Blake was slow out of the blocks –almost in the “on-your-marks” position — and found himself at the back of the pack off the bend with his rivals suddenly in his view. Then something happened.
He caught Spearmon, the US 2010 champion who is known for his late burst, and drove by him in a move that put Spearmon in reverse mode – simply unheard of. He then shifted gears again and went after Gay, who had long separated himself from the chasers and who’s also known for his power and closing speed. Blake narrowed the gap between himself and Gay to within .06 of a second, leaving meet commentators and spectators in a state of utter amazement.
This race clearly must have been a huge confidence booster for him – not that he really needed any – and may have left Gay shaking his head: “not another one”.
Are we being premature here about his ability to beat Gay? Was his run a fluke? We don’t think so, even though the word is that Gay isn’t 100% back. Gay came from behind and beat Powell recently, but one apparent difference between Blake and Powell is that Blake is hungry; he craves success and has been determined since his mid-teens that he’s going to get it.
While he might make utterances out of youthful exuberance, his approach is certainly not simplistic and he has the world’s fastest man as a training partner, mentor and friend. So brace yourself; Blake is coming.