Yohan Blake
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 Blake at the 2012 London Olympics |
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality |  Jamaica |
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| Born | 26 December 1989 St. James, Jamaica |
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| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 76 kg (168 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Running | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | 100 m, 200 m | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Racers Track Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Glen Mills | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 100 m: 9.75 (Kingston 2012) 200 m: 19.26 (Brussels 2011) |
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Medal record[hide]
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Blake's 100 m personal best of 9.75 seconds makes him the fourth fastest man ever, after Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell. His personal best for the 200 m (19.26 seconds) is the second fastest ever after Bolt.[1] He holds the national junior record for the 100 metres, and is the youngest sprinter to have broken the 10-second barrier (at 19 years, 196 days).[2][3][4]
He is coached by Glen Mills. His training partners are Bolt and Daniel Bailey.[5]
Early life
Born in St. James, Jamaica,, Blake is the son of Veda and Shirley Blake. He attended St. Jago High School in Spanish Town where his first sporting love was cricket. Blake was a fast bowler, and it was only after the school principal saw how quickly he ran to the wicket that he was urged to try sprinting.[6]Career
Blake set the fastest time by a Jamaican junior sprinter over 100 m with 10.11 seconds.[7] The record was set at the 2007 CARIFTA Games held in the Turks and Caicos islands where he also led his team to gold in the 4 × 100 metres relay.[8] At this occasion, he was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the 2007 CARIFTA Games.[9][10][11]Blake won the 100 metres "B" race at the 2009 Reebok Grand Prix.[12] His exploits at the Golden Gala in July represented a significant improvement. He proved himself to be a serious competitor at the senior level: he took third place behind Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell and improved his personal best with a 10-second barrier-breaking run of 9.96 seconds,[13] becoming the youngest athlete ever to do so.[14] He improved to 9.93 seconds shortly after, taking third place behind training partners Bolt and Daniel Bailey at the Meeting Areva.[15]
Prior to the 2009 World Championships, Blake (along with Marvin Anderson and Sheri-Ann Brooks) tested positive for the stimulant 4-Methyl-2-hexanamine.[16][17] A disciplinary panel organised by the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) cleared him of a doping infraction on the grounds that the drug was not on the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned list. However, JADCO appealed their own panel's ruling, stating that the athlete should be disciplined as the drug was similar in structure to the banned substance tuaminoheptane.[18] As the panel would resolve the issue after the World Championships, the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association took the precaution of withdrawing Blake from the relay race.[19] The appeals tribunal decided that a ban would be appropriate, and Blake and the three other sprinters each received a three month ban from competition.[20]
At the 2011 World Championships, Blake comfortably made the final. Following the disqualification of compatriot Usain Bolt, Blake won the Gold medal in a time of 9.92s.[21][22] At 21 years, 245 days, Blake also became the youngest 100 metres world champion ever, surpassing Carl Lewis, who won the event at 1983 World Championships at the age of 22 years, 38 days.[23] Alongside Bolt and other Jamaican teammates in Daegu, Blake won the 4×100 m relay final and broke the world record (set by the Jamaican team at the Beijing Olympics in 2008) with a time of 37.04 seconds.[24][25]
At the 2011 IAAF Diamond League meeting in Zurich, Blake beat Asafa Powell in the 100 m with a personal best of 9.82 seconds. The following week in Brussels, Blake set a 2011 world leading time in the 200m with a personal best of 19.26 seconds, the second fastest time of all-time of the event with an improvement of more than half of a second (0.52 s) from his previous best 19.78 s set in Monaco in 2010.[26][27]
He began his 2012 season strongly, registering the first sub-10-second time of the season (9.90s) at April's UTech Classic.[28] He went on to register a 9.84 second run at the Cayman Invitational prior to the Jamaican Olympic trials, where he beat Usain Bolt over 100 metres with a personal best time of 9.75 seconds, making him the fourth fastest man ever over the distance. He also won the 200 metres with a time of 19.80s ahead of Bolt at 19.83s.
In the 4 x 100m final, Yohan ran the third leg as the Jamaicans won gold, setting a new world record.
