Nickname(s) The Beast Weight 76 kg Nationality Jamaica Name Yohan Blake | Role Olympic athlete Event(s) 100 m, 200 m Height 1.8 m | |
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Similar People Profiles | ||
Parents Shirley Blake, Veda Blake | ||
A look back yohan blake
Yohan Blake (born 26 December 1989), is a Jamaican sprinter of the 100-metre and 200-metre sprint races. He won gold at the 100 m at the 2011 World Championships as the youngest 100 m world champion ever, and a silver medal in the 2012 Olympic Games in London in the 100 m and 200 m races for the Jamaican team.
Contents
- A look back yohan blake
- Running motivation 2014 usain bolt tyson gay yohan blake jeremy wariner
- Early life
- Junior
- Drug ban
- World championships
- 2012
- 2013
- 2014
- 2015
- 2016
- Personal bests
- Achievements
- Other interests
- References
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, behind only Usain Bolt. His personal best for the 200 m (19.26 seconds) is the second fastest time ever after Bolt. He holds the Jamaican national junior record for the 100 metres, and was formerly the youngest sprinter to have broken the 10-second barrier (at 19 years, 196 days).
He is coached by Glen Mills and his training partners are Usain Bolt and Daniel Bailey.
Running motivation 2014 usain bolt tyson gay yohan blake jeremy wariner
Early life
Blake 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.
Junior
Blake set the fastest time by a Jamaican junior sprinter over 100 m with 10.11 seconds. 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. At this occasion, he was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the 2007 CARIFTA Games.
In 2008 when Usain Bolt was asked in an interview whether there was any sprinters that could challenge him, Bolt named his training partner Blake, saying "Watch out for Yohan Blake. He works like a beast. He's there with me step for step in training." The "Beast" nickname stuck.
Blake won the 100 metre "B" race at the 2009 Reebok Grand Prix. 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, 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.
Drug ban
Prior to the 2009 World Championships, Blake (along with Marvin Anderson and Sheri-Ann Brooks) tested positive for the stimulant 4-methyl-2-hexanamine. 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. 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. 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.
World championships
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. 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. 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.
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 200 m 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.
2012
Blake began his 2012 season strongly, registering the first sub-10-second time of the season (9.90s) at April's UTech Classic. 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 time of 9.75 seconds. He also won the 200 metres with a time of 19.80s ahead of Bolt at 19.83s.
The 2012 London Olympics was the first Olympics that Blake participated in. He came in as a serious threat to Bolt's 100 m title. In the 100 m final he placed second to Bolt in a time of 9.75 seconds. He also followed Bolt home in the final of the 200 metres where he won the silver medal in a time of 19.44 seconds, the fastest non-winning time in history.
In the 4×100 m final, Blake ran the third leg as the Jamaicans won gold, setting a new world record time of 36.84 seconds.
On 23 August 2012, at the Athletissima Diamond League meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, Blake ran the 100 metres in 9.69 seconds, tying him with Tyson Gay as the second fastest man in history, behind Bolt.
2013
Blake suffered a hamstring injury in April 2013. After running 20.72 seconds over 200 m in the Jamaica Nationals on June 8, thus failing to qualify for the 200 m event at the 2013 Moscow World Championships, Blake pulled out of the 100 m event of the World Championships, for which he had an automatic entry as the defending world champion.
2014
Blake tried competing again in 2014, but placed 6th at the 200 m Lausanne Diamond League event, with a time of 20.48 seconds. He then suffered another hamstring injury and fell at the 40 metre mark during the Glasgow Diamond League 100 m race shortly after that, ending his season.
2015
Blake decided he was ready to race again in 2015 after recovering from injuries in 2013 and 2014. He failed to advance from the Jamaica Outdoor national championship semi-final in the 100 metres, placing ninth with a time of 10.36 seconds, with the top 8 advancing to the finals. He did not participate in the 200 m trials after that.
2016
Blake finished fourth in the 100 m at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro with a time of 9.93 s. He failed to reach the final of the 200 m, finishing 6th in his semi-final. However, Blake won his second career olympic gold in the 4×100 m relay.
Personal bests
Achievements
Other interests
Away from athletics, Blake continues to be a keen cricketer, having once held ambitions to play for the West Indies. Playing for the Kingston Cricket Club in the athletics off-season and specialising as a bowler, Blake once took four wickets for ten runs.
On 16 August 2012, Blake rang the bell at Lord's Cricket Ground, London to signify the start of the third Investec test match between England and South Africa. He was the first non-professional cricketer to do this.
Blake is also a fan of IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and has expressed his desire to play for them and also Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
Like his compatriot Usain Bolt, Blake is a Manchester United supporter.
Blake also attended the 2014 Formula One British Grand Prix.