Already a fast sprinter, Blake's a quick learner
Canadian making strides on the track, looks destined to break 10-second barrier
When Jerome Blake powered through a massive headwind in Bermuda in early April to run 10.38 seconds and beat a 100-metre field that included American stars Noah Lyles and Erriyon Knighton, one eyebrow went up.
A week later, when Blake posted a personal-best 20.04 seconds for 200m — becoming the fourth-fastest Canadian at that distance — the other eyebrow arched. And then the 26-year-old ran a personal-best 10-flat over 100 metres on May 1 in Florida, and it was time to stop acting surprised.
He was obviously breaking out, and the track and field world has taken notice. His early season shots across the bow earned Blake a lane in Friday's Diamond League 200m in Doha, Qatar, along with fellow Canadians Aaron Brown and Andre De Grasse, the reigning Olympic champ at that distance. Lyles and American compatriot Fred Kerley will be in the hunt, while Jereem Richards, Filippo Tortu and Femi Ogunode round out the stacked field.
A year ago it would have been hard to envision Blake keeping that kind of company. He's still a pretty raw talent, though some of the sharp edges have been smoothed by American coach Dennis Mitchell, whose Florida-based training group Blake joined after the 2020 season.
“Once I went to Dennis, and people saw what we were doing early on in (2021), everyone said, `OK, next year, once he gets a little bit more into the system, he's going to be hard to beat; once he figures it out,' ” Blake said last month.
“I'm slowly figuring it out now. I'm still learning. Honestly, I know what I'm doing, but sometimes I don't know some stuff, so I have to ask my coach and ask my teammates for help. I'm still learning and still trying to grasp how to execute races properly. The one thing I'll say for sure, though, is my coach reinforced one of the areas where I was weak, which was mentally. The times I'd put down in training wouldn't reflect in the meet because I was super scared and worried and my focus would drift off myself and I'd end up trying to focus on other people.”
In Bermuda, he shrugged off a ridiculous 5.6 metres-per-second wind and the fact he was in a final with four of the 160 men acknowledged by World Athletics as having run the 100m in less than 10 seconds: Johan Blake (9.69), Mike Rodgers (9.85), Lyles (9.86) and Brown (9.96).
His winning time seems pedestrian, until you do the conversion.
“The agents I know who are always at the meets, they're all like shocked, and like, `Yo, do you know what the conversion is?' I'm like, no. Somebody said with zero wind it would have been like 9.94, 9.95, and with some positive wind it would have been 9.8 high. It definitely got the (athletics) world excited, that's for sure. That good a field, no one expected me to do that.”
He came into the season with personal bests of 10.06 seconds for the 100m and 20.20 seconds for the 200m, but he expects to go lower.
“Running nine seconds is the next stratosphere. I'm a student of the sport. I've watched, I've read, I've been in nine-second races before and I've felt how fast they are. So now, for me to be in this shape where nine seconds is a possibility and 19 seconds as well, it's pretty amazing.
“But in general, this is the most important thing, it's not about running nine seconds or 19 once and calling it a day,” said Blake. “My ultimate goal is to be able to run nine and 19 consistently. With consistency comes greatness. That's my goal, to be the best athlete that I physically can be.”
He is strides ahead of who he was in 2013 when his family moved from Jamaica, where he was born, to Kelowna, B.C. He arrived as a long jumper, but quickly learned to love sprinting. After working with coach Pat Sima-ledding, he moved to Coquitlam, B.C., where he was coached by Tara Self.
“Both of them did tremendous jobs with me, and if it wasn't for them I probably wouldn't be here right now, so I have to tip my hat to them,” Blake said.
But he felt he needed to elevate his mental game, and Mitchell has done that. Athletics Canada head coach Glenroy Gilbert has been pleased with the progress.
“There's definitely some glimmers of what's possible with Jerome. I don't want to rush him to a certain place,” said Gilbert. “He's working his way there. The consistency around competition, that will all come this year. These are very good signs, but he's got a whole season in front of him.”
And, as Blake has already shown, a few of track and field's brightest stars behind him.