Yohan Blake at the 13th World Championships in Athletics in Daegu |
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Jamaican | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | December 26, 1989 St. James, Jamaica |
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| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Running | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | 100 m, 200 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | racers track club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) |
100 m: 9.82 s (Zurich 2011) |
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Medal record
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Yohan Blake (born December 26, 1989) is a Jamaican sprinter and the current 100 metre World Champion. He holds the national junior record for the 100 metres, and tied Seun Ogunkoya as the youngest sprinter to have broken the 10-second barrier (at 19 years, 197 days).[1][2] Blake's personal best of 9.82 seconds makes him the fourth fastest Jamaican runner, after Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt.[3] His fastest run under any conditions is 9.80 seconds in May 2011 in Kingston, but the wind assistance (+2.2 m/s) was over the legal limit. He is coached by Glen Mills, and is training partners with Bolt and Daniel Bailey.[4] On September 16, 2011 in Brussels, Belgium, he won in a time of 19.26 seconds, the second fastest 200 m ever.[5]
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Born in St. James, Jamaica, Blake is the son of Veda and Shirley Blake. He attended St. Jago High School in Spanish Town.
Blake set the fastest time by a Jamaican junior sprinter over 100 m with 10.11 seconds.[6] The record was set at the CARIFTA Games held in the Turks and Caicos islands where he also won the 200 metres and led his team to record breaking runs in the 4 × 400 metres relay and 4 × 100 metres relay.[7]
Blake won the 100 metres "B" race at the 2009 Reebok Grand Prix.[8] 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,[9] becoming the youngest athlete ever to do so. He improved to 9.93 seconds shortly after, taking third place behind training partners Bolt and Daniel Bailey at the Meeting Areva.[10]
Prior to the 2009 World Championships, Blake (along with Marvin Anderson and Sheri-Ann Brooks) tested positive for the stimulant 4-Methyl-2-hexanamine.[11][12] A disciplinary panel organised by the Jamaican 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.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15]
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.[16][17] 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.[18][19]
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.[20][21]
| Event | Time (seconds) | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 metres | 6.75 | Madison Square Garden, New York, United States | 1 February 2008 |
| 100 metres | 9.82 | Zurich, Switzerland | 8 September 2011 |
| 200 metres | 19.26 | Brussels, Belgium | 16 September 2011 |
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | World Youth Championships | Marrakech, Morocco | 7th | 100 m | |
| 2006 | World Junior Championships | Beijing, China | 3rd | 100 m | |
| 1st | 4x100 m relay | ||||
| 2008 | World Junior Championships | Bydgoszcz, Poland | 4th | 100 m | |
| 2nd | 4x100 m relay | ||||
| 2011 | World Championships | Daegu, South Korea | 1st | 100 m | 9.92 |
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