Yohan Blake won gold in the 100 meters at the 2011 World Athletics Championships to become the youngest 100 meters world champion ever at 21 years, 245 days.
By Neto Baptiste
The second‑fastest man ever in both the 100 and 200 meters, Jamaican Yohan Blake, has pledged to make a significant contribution to the further development of track and field in Antigua. Blake who dubbed Antigua as his ‘second home,’ trained at the country’s lone tack and field facility, the YASCO Sports Complex, during a recent visit.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports show, the Jamaican World Athletics Championships 100 meters gold medalist, said he plans to develop a programme he hopes could help to produce the next generation of quality athletes coming out of Antigua.
“If I was the government, I would spend more money looking about it in terms of building-up the stands, taking care of the track because Antigua has produced good runners throughout the years. I had the opportunity to train with Daniel Bailey for the last eight to 10 years and we have pushed each other a lot in training, and I believe that even with what happened with the young kids from Antigua who didn’t get to compete at the junior games, and I felt it so much but I am going to be here. Antigua will be my second home and I am going to try to create a programme, and the government don’t have to give me no money but just for the future of the kids, I will develop a programme to encourage the next great person from tomorrow in Antigua, I believe it can happen,” he said.
Blake won gold in the 100 meters at the 2011 World Athletics Championships to become the youngest 100 meters world champion ever at 21 years, 245 days. He also won a silver medal in the 2012 Olympic Games in London in the 100 and 200 meters races for the Jamaican team behind Usain Bolt. His times of 9.75 in 100 meters and 19.44 in 200 meters are the fastest Olympic sprints in history to place second.
The Jamaican said the sport was his way of taking his family out of poverty while making a life for himself.
“My father and my mother were struggling in a one bedroom, and sprinting was my way out because my future was in my hands, it was about how fast I could sprint, so I do not have to reply on that man to go on the starting line, but I have to reply on somebody else to pick me, whether I am good or not. I know I was good enough for cricket, and I know I am great enough for sprinting so I chose sprinting,” he said.
Blake, who went on to win several international medals to include 4×1 relay medals at the World Athletics Championships, suffered a serious hamstring injury in 2013 that threatened to put his career on hold for a very long time.
The Jamaican said that he was determined to rebound.
“I was sprinting in Glasgow where my muscle was frozen and popped and came right off the bone, and I had to do a surgery to reattach it back to the bone. A lot of people don’t understand the magnitude of such an injury and it hindered me throughout my career. I was running somewhere close to 9.8 or 9.9 and even after my surgery I was still the fastest Jamaican for the last three to four years so it was tough and it’s still tough because there is a little aluminium in the leg that I sprint with, and it’s hard but I am not going to lie, I have to give God thanks for everything I have gotten, and if you look back on any names to call in the sport, I have to be there,” the athlete said.
Blake is the second‑fastest man ever in both 100 m and 200 m. Together with Tyson Gay, he is the joint second fastest man ever over 100 m with a personal best of 9.69 seconds which he ran on 23 August 2012.
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