Yohan Blake blames undisclosed issue for 100m failure in Oregon Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

Veteran sprinter Yohan Blake says an issue in the warm-up area denied him the chance of making the 100m final at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

Blake finished his semi-final race in fourth place in a time of 10.12 seconds on Saturday, 23 days after he turned back the clock at the Jamaica trials to win the 100m in 9.85 seconds, his best time since 2012, when he beat Usain Bolt at the Olympic Trials, took second to Bolt at the Olympics and became the second-fastest man in history at age 22.

His time of 10.12 seconds was the ninth fastest in a field of 23 competitors, meaning that he just failed to secure the eighth and final spot for the medal round.

“I was very disappointed in the 100. Something major happened in my warm-up coming into the semifinals and that hider my performance,” Blake disclosed after he punched his ticket to the 200m semifinals on Monday.

Blake said he will not disclose the issue that hindered his performance in the 100m semifinal.

It was the second straight time that Blake failed to click in a global championship. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was staged in 2021, Blake also failed to qualify for the 100m final after clocking 10.14 seconds to finish sixth in a semifinal heat. After that failure, he pulled out of the 200m.

The 2011 World champion is listed to run in the first semifinal of the 200m tonight. He clocked 20.35 seconds for fourth place in his heat on Monday to advance as a result of a non-automatic qualifying spot.

The 32-year-old Blake said he wants to run faster in the semifinal but is worried about his form.

“I am short of work,” Blake said. “I didn’t get to do enough coming into the championships because of some unfortunate issues. I know what I can do but I am short of a little work.”

A second Jamaican — Rasheed Dwyer — has also punched his ticket to the 200m semifinal

Dwyer clocked a season’s best 20.29 seconds to finish behind the defending champion, Noah Lyles of the USA in his first-round heat.

He disclosed after the heat that “I felt my hamstring coming off the corner and I felt it again coming into the straight.”

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