CAN BLAKE OUTRUN DOUBTERS

How fast can Yohan Blake go next year? Blake, the promising St. Jago past student had promised so much as a junior but didn’t deliver as much as his scores of adoring fans expected. In his final years at St. Jago, Blake was upstaged by schoolmate Nickel Ashmeade, another promising junior, and Calabar’s Ramone McKenzie causing many to start thinking that they were seeing a modern-day Daniel England.

England as you may recall was a talented high school 200 metre and 400 metre runner for Calabar High School during the late 80s to early 90s. Many will remember his epic battle at Champs in the 200 metres with Asafa Powell’s older brother Donovan Powell, who that day handed England one of his rare defeats. However, as talented as England seemed to be at the time, his career fizzled after he left high school and eventually faded from public consciousness.

In 2008, Blake dropped out of school, opting to take his chances with veteran sprint coach Glen Mills. Four years earlier Mills had taken another talented youngster and eventually transformed him into one of the greatest athletes of all time. You may have heard of him. His name is Usain Bolt.

After less than one calendar year, Mills has taken Blake from 10.11s to 9.93s in the 100 metres and had it not been for a positive test for a mild stimulant that truncated his season he may have gone faster yet. Blake and training partner Marvin Anderson returned adverse findings during the National Championships in late June for 4-Methyl-2-hexanamine, a stimulant derived from the geranium plant and which will be added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of prohibited substances for 2010.

Blake has got a lot stronger under Mills’ guidance and he will get stronger still. His mechanics are also not as sound as they should be. The first 30 metres of his race, including his start, needs a lot of work but nothing that he wont be able to iron out during this current off season as he waits out his three-month ban.

There are other elements of his race that need improvement as well. When all is said and done we could be seeing 9.8xs from Blake on a consistent basis starting next season going forward.

How fast will he be able to go? I don’t know but Blake has been battle tested and the doping scandal he found himself in the middle of has forced him to mature a lot faster than he would have wanted this past season. The new found maturity and the team he has around him will help ensure that he remains focussed and train even harder.

Doubts will have been cast about his performances, so he will need to run even faster than ever to dispel those doubts over whether Muscle Speed aided his ability to run fast. In truth, he will never be able to outrun the doubters, not now, not ever. That being said, look for Blake to break new speed barriers next season as he tries to do the impossible and outrun public perception.
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