Javan Martin of The Bahamas on his way to winning the 100m at the Carifta Games (© Collin Reid)
For Javan Martin, only one thing will suffice when he travels to Colombia for the IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015 in July.
“Gold,” he says with some assurance. “Nothing else but gold; no silver, no bronze.”
Though the Bahamian’s goal may sound like slightly starry-eyed teenage ambition, his confidence is actually well-founded.
Last month – less than a fortnight before his 17th birthday – Martin won the under-18 100m at the Carifta Games in a personal best of 10.41, a run that launched him to the top of the world youth list. He duly became one of the medal favourites for the 100m at the championships in Cali, which take place from July 15-19.
He has since been bumped down to third on this year’s world youth lists following runs of 10.30 by Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown and 10.33 by Italy’s Filippo Tortu, but that hasn't deterred him.
And it’s not just the 100m that Martin has his sights trained on. He has also run 21.16 for 200m this year when taking the silver medal in that event at the Carifta Games. In Cali, he hopes to sweep the sprint events in the same way his favourite athlete, Usain Bolt, has done at senior level for so many years.
When Martin took up the sport in primary school, it wasn’t actually the fastest man in history who originally inspired him. In fact, it wasn’t a man at all, but instead the all-conquering female sprinters from The Bahamas whose achievements he one day hoped to emulate.
“I used to look up to the girls,” he says, “Debbie Ferguson and the other greats from The Bahamas.”
Martin first took up athletics as a five-year-old, his choice emerging out of a love for running and, as is almost inescapable when growing up in The Bahamas, a love for the sport itself. “I wouldn’t say I was faster than everyone, but I took it seriously,” he says.
Having continued to take it seriously for the past decade, Martin now finds himself faster than almost everyone his own age in the world.
He trains six days a week with the Speed Begins club in The Bahamas and because of his outstanding ability, most of his training is done alone, though he sometimes links up with older members of the group for workouts.
Earlier this month, Martin teamed up with athletes several years his senior and joined Deneko Brown, Blake Bartlett and Alfred Higgs on the Bahamian 4x100m team which competed at the IAAF World Relays in Nassau, finishing sixth in their heat in 39.32.
The experience – competing for his nation on home turf in front of 15,000 screaming fans – proved a valuable, albeit slightly daunting, one.
“I got a little bit nervous; I had butterflies,” he says. “I’ve never run in front of so many people in my life, besides maybe the Penn Relays. Knowing I was running in my home town motivated me to run a little faster. It gave me more experience.”
The lessons learned at the World Relays will need to be drawn upon if Martin is to conquer the world at youth level in Cali, but the 17-year-old is confident that he has left much room for improvement on his 10.41 personal best ahead of the championships in July.
“I’m hoping to have a better time than I did at Carifta,” he says. “I’m still in shape, I’m still training, so I’ll be better [in July]. I’ll be in top, top shape.”
Despite his plans to double up in Cali, Martin sees himself as a 100m specialist. “I’m not changing,” he says. “I’ll always be a 100m runner.”
When he finishes school at Tabernacle Baptist in Freeport, Martin plans to tread the well-worn path of many successful Caribbean sprinters and take up a scholarship at a US college. It will, he hopes, be the next step on a road that eventually takes him to the top of the sport.
In Cali, Martin will get the chance to compete for the honour of being the fastest youth in the world and get that much-prized 100m gold medal.
From there, his outlook for the future is suitably aspirational for such a lightning-quick 17-year-old.
“I’ll become the fastest man someday,” he says.
Cathal Dennehy for the IAAF
