Yohan Blake (born 26 December 1989) is a Jamaican sprinter specialising in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprint races. He won gold at the 100m at the 2011 World Athletics Championships as the youngest 100m world champion ever, and a silver medal in the 2012 Olympic Games in London in the 100m and 200m races for the Jamaican team behind Usain Bolt. His times of 9.75 in 100m and 19.44 in 200m are the fastest 100m and 200m Olympic sprints in history to not win the gold medal.
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, with a - 0.2 wind, which he ran on 23 August 2012. Only Usain Bolt has run faster (9.58s, 9.63s, and 9.69s). His personal best for the 200 m (19.26 seconds) is the second fastest time ever after Bolt (19.19 seconds). Blake holds the Jamaican national junior record for the 100 metres, and was the youngest sprinter to have broken the 10-second barrier at 19 years, 196 days old before Trayvon Bromell ran 100m in 9.97 seconds at 18 years 11 months and 3 days old. As such, Blake is considered one of the best sprinters of all time.
Blake was coached by Glen Mills until 2019. His training partners were Usain Bolt and Daniel Bailey.
Baby life
Blake attended Green Park Primary and Junior High School in the Parish of Clarendon. He was discovered as a young talent from Davis Primary School by coach Carlton Solan. While he was at Green Park, Hopeton Bailey was the Head of the PE Department and the overall sports coordinator. 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.
Career
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 was also a member of the winning 4x100m relay team. 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 were 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.
2011
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 9.92 seconds. At , Blake also became the youngest 100 metres world champion ever, surpassing Carl Lewis, who won the event at the 1983 World Championships at the age of . At these World Championships, alongside Bolt, Nesta Carter and Michael Frater, Blake won gold in 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.