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Yohan Blake of Team Jamaica looks on after competing in the Men’s 100m Semi-Final on day two of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at Hayward Field on July 16, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon. Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images for World Athletics.

 

Yohan Blake, the second fastest man of all time can be seen every day all over Budapest, as he is one of the faces of the billboard campaign of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and one of the biggest stars of this year’s Gyulai István Memorial – Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix.

It’s no coincidence that the FIA has chosen him as a credible representative for its speed limit posters. He has the best individual record of any athlete still active in the world. In 2012 in Lausanne, he ran 9.69 in the 100m, bettered only by the greatest of all time, Usain Bolt (9.58).

It was the 32-year-old Jamaican who made the most of the dramatic disqualification of his world record holder countryman in 2011. In the final of the World Championships in South Korea, Bolt jumped out, which many attributed to the sensational form of Blake, who put the legend under enormous pressure with his results. Thus, Blake was already the favorite in the second start, and he managed to win the gold medal. Daegu might be a special place for him, as he also reached the top in the 4x100m relay.

At the 2012 London Olympics, he finished behind Bolt as silver medallist in both the 100m and 200m, and alongside Bolt he was part of the Jamaican team that triumphed in the 4×100 relay – together with Nesta Carter and Michael Frater – with a sensational world record of 36.84. Blake has thus established himself as a world record holder to date and has two Olympic gold medals under his belt since the Rio Olympics, defending the title with the Jamaican relay team in 2016. In an environment where people compare everyone to Bolt, every little partial success is a big deal, such as Jamaica’s U20 national record. Another example of how young he exploded into the top is that until Trayvon Bromell came along, he was the youngest sprinter ever to run under the 10-second mark. He was 19 years and 196 days old when he already had such times (2009, Golden Gala – 9.96).

After his youth successes, injuries kept him from getting even closer to Bolt. But he seems to have found his way back on track this year: although he did not make the 100m final at the World Championships, his form at the Jamaican Championships, which he won not long ago with 9.85, shows that he is capable of an outstanding performance.

It will therefore be interesting to see what he can achieve on 8 August in Székesfehérvár against Christian Coleman, who finished 6th at the World Championships. Two of our top Hungarian sprinters, Dominik Illovszky and Márk Pap, will be running with the second fastest man of all time, and will be in a strong line-up to improve on their individual bests.