Britain’s David Bolarinwa and Jamaica’s Odane Skeen won their qualifying heats in the 100m at the Youth Olympics yesterday, setting up a much anticipated final between two sprinters touted as the next Usain Bolt.
Bolarinwa blew away the field in his heat, finishing in 10.62 seconds. Skeen got out slowly, but surged to beat Thailand’s Jirapong Meenapra.
The 17-year-old Bolarinwa has the fastest time this year among 16 and 17-year-olds — 10.39 seconds in London earlier this month. Skeen, a 16-year-old whose lanky style has some likening him to his compatriot Bolt, ran 10.46 seconds in Jamaica.
“I thought: ‘Let me go there, go hard and see if anyone can go faster,’” Bolarinwa said. “It was a good performance overall.”
Skeen was less thrilled with his performance, blaming his slower time on two false starts by other competitors, but he said come Saturday’s final, he would win.
Bolarinwa and Skeen will face each other for the first time and are still sizing one another up. Skeen, for example, was surprised to hear that it was Bolarinwa and not himself who has run the fastest 100m this year. Marvin Bracy of the US ran the second fastest, but is not at the Games.
Organizers of the first Youth Olympics have emphasized participation rather than winning, but that was lost on Bolarinwa and Skeen, who both predicted they would win on Saturday.
“It’s a big showdown,” Bolarinwa said.
“He’s not really a quick starter. We know that already. His pick up is fantastic and so is mine. If I get a good start, he’ll have to take me,” Bolarinwa said.
Bolarinwa’s coach John Powell chimed in later: “Bring it on.”
Both boys seemed to relish the comparison to Bolt and their budding rivalry to that of Bolt and Tyson Gay.
Told he has been compared to a miniature Bolt, Skeen just smiled and said he one day dreams of surpassing his idol.
“I want to be better than Bolt,” said Skeen, whose goal it is to win gold at the 2012 Olympics in London. “I want to be much more faster.”
Bolarinwa enjoyed being likened to the two sprinting greats, but wants to surpass them.
“These guys are fantastic. You look at what they have done, you want to be better than them, but it’s good to have them in the back of your mind to look up to,” Bolarinwa said.
Watching Skeen’s heat, Powell said he saw some of Bolt in Skeen, but he was quick to point out that a lot can change with an athlete by the time they reach adulthood. He noted that Bolt, for example, started out running 200m and 400m, before exploding on the stage in the 100m.
“You don’t know how they will develop, this is the thing,” Powell said of Skeen.
“He’s about 16 and that is two or three years of formative years as an athlete. He could broaden out. He obviously has a good stride. If I looked at him — not that you can stereotype athletes these days — I’d say he is a typical 200m runner,” Powell said.
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