Jamaican Dexter Lee in action at the CARIFTA Games (© Anthony Foster)
Kingston, JamaicaFour years ago Dexter Lee's role in track & field was merely watching from the sidelines as his elder brother, Keneil, went through his paces at practice sessions at Herbert Morrison High school.
On occasions he carried his brother's spikes and training pack, but one day he suddenly decided to join him on the track.
"My brother was running and I just followed him, before I decided to start training with him in the evenings," said Lee, who when he planted the seed, had no idea he would become one of Jamaica's top youth sprinters.
Following his brother's footsteps
Lee, who celebrated his 16th birth on January 18, said just walked into the training session one evening without saying anything to the coach. He recalls that on the second evening, "the coach (Claude Grant) asked me what event I would like to do and my respond was the 100m."
"He told me if I want to be successful I will have to train hard."
It wasn't until four months later he was called on to represent his school and he did with distinction.
His first official race was at the Puma Development Meet at Kirkvine in Manchester, where he finished first in the 100m Class 4 in 12.3, a time comparable to girls' his age at the time.
"I was surprised… It was my first race and I was not expecting to win. I was very nervous at the start," he recalls.
Later that season (2004), he improved to 11.6, which gave him bronze at the Western Jamaica Championships and by 2005 he was the winner with 11.95.
From 11.6 to 10.50 in 2006
In 2006, he made another big step, moving to 10.50 to win the Class Two 100m at the Western Championships.
Asked how did he jumped from being a wanna-be sprinter with unspeakable times to a boy who now brags a personal best 10.34 seconds, Lee, who first thought of a career in track & field two years ago, said "hard training, consistence training".
His time makes him the fastest 16-year-old in the world, but he will have to prove that he is the best at July's World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Point to prove at 'real test' in Ostrava
Apart from Trinidad & Tobago's Darrell Brown's 10.31, which gave him gold at the 2001 World Youth Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, all of the other winners – Harry Aikines-Aryeetey of Great Britain (10.35) – 2005; Yahya Al-Gahes of South Africa (10.69) – 2003 and Mark Lewis-Francis of Great Britain (10.42) – 1999, have ran slower than Lee's personal best.
"I would be going there to prove a point to the world, to let them know that I am the fastest youth," said Lee, who lives with his mother Charlene Campbell in Catherine Hall, a community in Montego Bay, Jamaica's second city.
"I am not sure if I am the fastest youth, so that why I want to go there and prove it," added the 16-year-old.
"I am really looking forward to the World Youth Championships, because I will get the real test there," said Lee, who has won all his races unchallenged this season.
Only four Jamaicans have won gold medals at the World Youth Championships. That group is led by the sensational Usain Bolt, who won the 200m in 2003 in a Championships record 20.40 seconds and Anneisha McLaughlin, who took the girls' equivalent in 23.26, Camille Robinson, who won the 400m Hurdles from 2001 in 58.72 and Veronica Campbell (11.49), who pocketed the 100m title in 1999.
Lee's coach, Grant, who is the coach at Herbert Morrison High School, expects Lee to continue doing well this year.
"I am not going to say he is going to run this or that, what I told him is we need to put in another work load," Grant said.
Grant said he is in for an improvement this season, "because his 200m has improved, it stands the 100m will improve".
For the World Youth, Grant said all he wants is "for him is to go there healthy and run well".
Two wins, two U-17 records at CARIFTA Games, eclipsing Bolt and Brown
He did very well to win the Under-17 sprint double at the recently held CARIFTA Games in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos, both in records times.
Lee won the 200m in 21.09 - erasing the previous mark of 21.11 held by Usain Bolt and beat Trinidad & Tobago's Darrell Brown's five-year-old mark of 10.36 when he crossed the line to win the 100m in 10.34, a personal best.
In giving a description of his performance, Lee, who anchored Jamaica to gold in the Under-17 sprint relay, said he just made good use of a fast track.
"It was fast track. It was a nice place to run," Lee, who has five brothers and one sister, said of the brand new Mondo track used for the Carifta Games.
CARIFTA records 'highlight' to date
Though he secured personal best times, he was never surprised. "I was not surprised, because I ran fast at Champs also," said Lee, whose lists his favourite food as rice & peas and chicken.
He was happier with the fact that he broke the records belonging to Bolt and Darrel Brown of Trinidad & Tobago. "To run 21.09 to break Bolt's record and the 10.34 to beat Darrell Brown's 100m record is the highlight of my career so far and it was so because those athletes are very famous, everybody knows them".
"The aim was just to go there and win...After running heats, I realised that I can break the records, and Yohan Blake even encouraged me to break them," Lee said.
Despite his competitive spirit, Lee said that he has little time to accommodate a debate as to who could have been the better sprinter – him or Keneil, who is the Western Class I champion. Instead he says they work together to develop their talents.
While he continues his exploits on the track, Lee dreams of earning a track scholarship. That's just a part of what he sees on the horizon. In fact, Lee has pledged to continue working hard so that he may become a World and Olympic sprint champion and someday wear the tag of the world's fastest man.
Anthony Foster for the IAAF
**NOTE**
5th IAAF World Youth Championships - Age Categories: Only athletes aged 15, 16 or 17 on 31 December in the year of the competition (e.g. for the 2007 Championships, born in 1990, 1991 or 1992) may compete.
