Usain Bolt (JAM) (© Getty Images)
A modest grass track at the William Knibb High School in Trelawny, Jamaica may seem an unlikely place to unearth the next Michael Johnson. But four to five times each week it is the place, where 16-year-old sprint sensation Usain Bolt can be found training quite possibly in pursuit of a medal at the Athens Olympics.
To compare anyone with the great Michael Johnson may appear a unfair burden but this is a boy, who last July at the age of 15 become the youngest ever athlete to win a gold medal at the IAAF/Coca Cola World Junior Championships, gunning down the opposition to win in 20.61, in front of his adoring home fans in Kingston.
This is also the teenager, who at the National High School Championships in Kingston last month, recorded a 200m World best for a 16-year-old of 20.25, and a 400m clocking of 45.34.
To put it in perspective, Bolt’s personal best times would have been good enough to have been ranked him in 2002 joint 13th in the world for 200m and 30th in the world for 400m - and he is still young enough to be eligible for this July’s IAAF World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke, Canada!
Standing 6ft 5ins (1.95m) and weighing in at 13 stone (77kg), Usain may be a schoolboy but he is most certainly built like a man.
A keen cricketer as a youngster, he was the best pace bowler in the school. His taste for athletics came at the age of ten when he discovered he was the quickest boy in the parish over 100m and 200m. But it wasn’t until he started to attend the William Knibb High School, and linked up with PE teacher and coach Dwight Barnett, that he realised the awesome talent he possessed for running, and he quickly replaced his cricket whites and boots, for vest, shorts and spikes.
In 2001, Bolt ran 21.81 for 200m and 48.28 for 400m but his huge breakthrough came at the Caribbean Under-17 Championships last July, when he reduced his 200m personal best from 21.12 to 20.61, and later that month became Jamaica's only individual gold medallist in front of the home fans in Kingston.
”I was very nervous before the start of the final," he said in reference to the World Juniors. “And I made a poor start because of that. But I was so happy to win. One thing about Jamaicans is they love their sport and they came out to support.”
In 2003, he has continued to produce eye-catching performances - 20.25 World Youth record for 200m and a 45.34 personal best 400m in Kingston on 5 April – but the one lap time even surprised Bolt. “I thought I might run a 46.0 or 45.9 but I didn’t expect to go that quickly,” he added.
The Trewlawny boy has also had to mature quickly off the track to come to terms with his burgeoning reputation on the track and he is a youngster very aware of his responsibilities.
”I am young but I know I cannot do things other people my age do,” he admitted. “I am a role model for other people.” But he insists people at school: “Look up to me but treat me as a normal person.”
With a brother and a sister, and a supportive mother and father - his dad works in the coffee industry - Bolt appears to have the solid family support necessary to avoid the pitfalls, which await young gifted athletes.
He admits he has already had a deluge of American college scholarship forms land on his doormat but he was reluctant to talk too much about his future plans.
”I’m not looking to make a decision on where I'm going for the next year,” he explained. "I’m not sure I’m even planning on going to America.”
His short-term aims are a little clearer, however.
Bolt’s main goal is to target the 400m at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Canada, and he hopes to make the Jamaican team for the 200m at the 9th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in August.
But as for next year’s Olympics?
”My coach will decide about whether I go for the Olympic Games,” he added.
The Jamaican also admitted he had a preference for the 200m over the 400m “because its shorter,” but if he grows to an even greater height he believes his better future distance could be the 400m.
Comparisons with the 200m and 400m World record holder Michael Johnson are all too easy to make.
Yet although Bolt admits he has a lot of respect for the Olympic legend, his main inspiration is surprisingly, for one so young, the late Arthur Wint (d.19/10/1992), who won the Olympic 400m gold at the 1948 London Olympics, and he is presently on a swift course to emulating his hero’s achievements one day.