Jamaica's Yohan Blake poses after stopping the clock in a record-breaking time of 10.11 seconds at the Carifta Games in the Turks and Caicos Islands on Saturday evening. Blake, 17, broke Raymond Stewart's 10.19 seconds, which stood for 23 years as the National Junior 100-metre record. - Photo by Anthony Foster

Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

Providenciales, Turks & Caicos:

'People (are) talking about him being the next Asafa. He is going to contend with Asafa very, very soon.'

- Boldon.

YOHAN BLAKE is the real deal. This is how Olympic silver medallist Ato Boldon described him after his impressive 10.11-second run for gold at Saturday night's 36th Carifta Games.

Since Raymond Stewart ran 10.19 seconds in May 1984, only St. George's' schoolboy Tesfa Latty, with 10.24 seconds at Boys' and Girls' Championships in 2003, had really threatened his national junior mark over 100m.

Class act

However, last weekend, Blake erased Latty's mark, posting a new boys' Class One 100m record at the GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships by running 10.21 seconds. And, on his way to the Carifta Games, Blake said he was going to add the National Junior record to his collection.

For Boldon, Blake's sizzling performance on the track is testimony that the 17-year-old is a class act.

Boldon said the first time he saw Blake was on video at Champs.

"I saw the 10.21 (on video) and I said, 'I have to see it for myself'. When I saw the 10.18, I said this boy is the real deal," Boldon said.

Boldon, who won the Olympic Games 100m silver in Sydney in 2000, said after seeing Blake's preliminary-round run of 10.18, which broke Stewart's 23-year-old Jamaica junior record, he was looking for 10 flat in the final.

" ... But I think the rain might have thrown my prediction off, so he ran 10.11," he said of the World Junior 100m bronze medallist.

Blake and his coach Danny Hawthorne were also looking for 10.00, but conceded they were satisfied with 10.11 for now.

No surprise

"I made the prediction (to lower 10.18) and it came true, no surprise to me," Hawthorne said, while noting that the weather conditions prevented his charge from running faster.

Blake said: "I am happy that the 10.11 came, but that wasn't what I was looking for ... I was looking to run 10.00."

Trinidadian Boldon, who won the double sprint bronze at the Atlanta Olympics, said Blake is going to contend with World 100m record holder Asafa Powell in the near future.

"People (are) talking about him being the next Asafa. He is going to contend with Asafa very, very soon," said Boldon.

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anthony.foster@gleanerjm.com