| DANIA BOGLE, Observer Staff |
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| BLAKE… 2006 World Junior Championships 100m bronze medallist |
NATIONAL junior 100m record-holder and former St Jago High School athlete Yohan Blake left the care and camp of his coach and guardian Danny Hawthorne, Sporting World has learnt.
Glen Mills, coach of triple Beijing Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt, said yesterday that the 2006 World Junior Championships 100m bronze medallist, had been training with him for a week now.
Mills, who is also head coach of University of the West Indies-based Racers Track Club, was however, tight-lipped when pressed for further information said “that is all I have to tell you”.
However, St Jago’s track team coach, Hawthorne, said yesterday that Blake, who lived with him during his entire school life at the Spanish Town-based school, left his home on Sunday without a word.
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| MILLS… conceded that Blake is training with him for a week now |
“I heard that he is gone… all I can say is that he has gone in a very unceremonial fashion,” Hawthorne said.
“… He (Blake) stepped out of my house at six o clock on Sunday… I was at home on Tuesday and he came for his things and I haven’t seen or spoken to him since.”
Blake, who hails from the western city of Montego Bay, boarded with Hawthorne during his entire student life at the Spanish Town-based St Jago.
Hawthorne said, however, that during the years when the athlete was in his care, he had only met the athlete’s mother once. This happened when the youngster was about to enter the high school over five years ago.
“I have never met his father and I saw his mother one time when he was going to come to St Jago… he has a sister who I communicate with and I think he has some other relatives,” Hawthorne said.
Blake anchored St Jago to victories in the 4×100m and 4×400m at last year’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ & Girls’ Athletics Championships a week before he set the national junior 100m record (10.17secs) during the 2007 Carifta Games in Turks & Caicos Islands.
He went on to win the Under-20 100m title at the 2008 Carifta Games in Basseterre, St Kitts/Nevis.
He was highly favoured to take the 100m title at this year’s World Junior Championships (WJC) in Bydgoszcz, Poland, but was slow out of the blocks after a false start and ended up fourth in the race which was won by his teammate Dexter Lee.
Blake had been selected to run the event at the WJC despite being disqualified for a false start at the National Junior Trials at GC Foster College in June.
This is not the first time the athlete has been out of sync with his erstwhile coach.
In an interview with Sporting World in April, Blake, who anchored St Jago boys to victory in the 4×100m relay and second place in the 4×400m in 2007, said he would not be a member of St Jago’s relay team competing at the 2008 edition of the annual Pennsylvania Relay Carnival at the University of Pennsylvania.
Blake had faced injury worries following his performance at the Carifta Games, but said that had nothing to do with his decision.
“I’m not going this year… nothing about injury, just some problems,” Blake told Sporting World then.
However, when questioned, Hawthorne had been unable to confirm whether or not the athlete would run.
“So since that time you know what I have been facing,” Hawthorne stated yesterday.
He added that Blake had decided to go overseas for a short period at the start of the current school year in September despite his disapproval.
Hawthorne said the athlete left in the last week in September, returned to school and trained for a week before packing his bags and leaving.
Hawthorne did say, however, that at 18 years old, Blake is officially an adult “so I treat him like an adult”.