OT OREGON | Buff Bay’s world champion! Jamaica-born Jerome Blake helps Canada mine relay gold
/ Our Today
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Jamaica may not have medaled in the men’s 4x100m relay final at the World Athletics Championships on Saturday night (July 23), but the nation can count one of its own among the Canadian quartet that upset the United States for the gold.
The Canadian team of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse won in a world-leading time of 37.48 seconds while the United States took silver in a season’s best 37.55 and Great Britain mined bronze in a season’s best 37.83.
Jamaica’s team, made up of Ackeem Blake, Yohan Blake, Oblique Seville and Jelani Walker, could only manage fourth place, despite their own season’s best of 38.06s.
While the Canadian team celebrated their gold with the crowd, they came across a group of Jamaica supporters in the stands and Jerome Blake, in his authentic Jamaica accent, took the opportunity to point out that he is originally from Buff Bay, Portland on the Caribbean island.
Blake, now 27, moved to British Columbia, Canada with his mother and brother, Jason, in 2013.
He started his track career in Jamaica as a hurdler in the 400m, but was convinced to switch to sprinting after a coach saw him testing his speed on the track. He competed for British Columbia at the 2017 Canada Summer Games where he won gold in both the 100m and 200m.
At the 2018 NACAC Championships, Blake was part of the gold medal winning 4×100 relay team.
He competed at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, finishing 6th in the 200m and 4th in the 4×100 relay.
Last year, he was part of the Canadian team that took silver in the 4x100m relay at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Earlier this year, it was reported that he was awaiting DNA results to confirm whether he was related to Jamaica’s Yohan Blake.
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