St. Jago's record-winning Championship of America 4x100m team (from left) Yohan Blake, Nickel Ashmead, Rikor Hilton, and Andre Wise pose with their shield on Saturday's final day of the 113th Penn Relays at the Franklin Field Stadium in Pennsylvania. - Anthony foster

GORDON WILLIAMS, Contributor

philadelphia, pennsylvania:

Yohan Blake admits he erred while anchoring St. Jago's 4x400 metres relay team to second place at the Penn Relays here last Saturday.

"The better team won the race," Blake conceded following his fast start that faded in the wake of an impressive late burst by Bryshon Nellum of American high school Long Beach Poly in the boys' championship event that extinguished St. Jago's final threat.

"It wasn't destined for us to win the race, even though I didn't judge the run well and that caused us to lose the race also."

Yet, based on his sensational closing run in the 4x100, which swept St. Jago past arch rivals Calabar to shatter the meet's high school championship record in 39.96 seconds earlier that day, it may be easier to forgive the 17-year-old's inexperience in the quarter-mile. After all, his strength is over shorter distances where, based on recent explosive performances, Blake has now been stamped as 'next' in a long line of world-class Jamaican male sprinters. He appears far more comfortable with that projection.

I'm getting faster

"I see myself picking up that role now, because as a real runner I'm getting faster and faster every time I run this (4x400 relay) or any kind of event," he explained after Saturday's race. "You can look for great things from me at (Jamaica's) World Championship trials (at the National Stadium in June) and also at the Pan-Am Games (in Brazil this summer)."

His steady trimming of personal best times, especially since the start of the year, proves Blake has a valid point. While the country is rarely short of wonderful sprinting talent, with 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell the clear leader in a pack that also includes standouts like reigning World Championships silver medallist Michael Frater, Blake said he is looking to force himself into contention for a place on Jamaica's senior teams to major meets. He already knows the times it will take to accomplish that goal.

"I'm looking for a great time," he said Saturday, "a 10 zero (seconds in the 100 metres), which I know I can run if I got the push, and I'm going to get the push. So you will see it."

Hard to doubt

It's hard to doubt him. At Boys Champs late last month he ran 10.21, a personal best for the 100 metres. He erased that with 10.18 in the heats at the Carifta Games Under-20 the following weekend in Turks and Caicos. In the final, the World Junior Championships bronze medallist grabbed the gold with a sizzling time of 10.11 that eclipsed the 23-year-old national junior record held by another former outstanding Jamaican sprinter, Raymond Stewart.

But coming with his success, Blake said, is the weight of public expectations to become the "next great one" and follow a line that includes Herb McKenley, Lennox Miller, Donald Quarrie, Stewart and Powell. When he surged along the backstretch last Saturday in hot pursuit of Nellum, the huge Jamaican segment of the crowd rose up and roared in anticipation. They hung their hopes on Blake. And he is feeling it.

A lot of pressure

"Yes, it is a lot of pressure," he said. "Even though (I'm) in my young stage right now, I'm in a lot of pressure to run fast as people have been saying this and saying that ... It's going to be a really big role."

Yet it is one the teenager is not shying away from.

"It's my time to take up that now, as time goes on," he said. "And you're going to see it in the near future."

His first task will be to avoid the pitfall of becoming just another promising young athlete. Jamaica has produced a slew of those too, but many like Rudolph Mighty and Nikole Mitchell, never quite stepped up to dominate the senior level. After turning back another outstanding sprinter in Remaldo Rose at Boys Champs this year, although the Camperdown star was reportedly not at his physical best, Blake said it's time to mix it up with the big boys.

"I'm separating myself from the juniors now," he explained.

At the national trials in June, Blake said he will try to make his first breakthrough. He's not near Powell's league, but is hoping to earn a spot on the World Championships sprint relay team in Osaka, Japan, this summer. Despite his tender age, Blake knows that while the stakes are getting higher, the margin for error is shrinking rapidly.

Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.