No regrets

HAVING LONG declared his love for cricket, 2011 World Champion Yohan Blake is working out at the Kingston Cricket Club and says he is excited about the upcoming season.

But he told The Sunday Gleaner it’s not a serious career option even as he eyes what could be the end of his track and field career.

“Let me declare this. Coaching is not on my mind, not even in track and field. I teach. I go around and I teach and, yes I had my YB Afraid cricket team but, because I was so much into track and field, I couldn’t get to carry it on longer. But, you know, I am looking to do some work with Kingston Cricket Club over by Sabina (Park). I started some training with them I am looking forward for the season and couple games have started. But cricket is just for fun and, if it reach further, yes, but as I said, I just want to settle down, build a family, have some ‘me time’.

“It’s been 20-odd years of torturing your body and my body is feeling a lot of pain, still feeling a lot of pain. I will just settle for now.”

Ahead of receiving the Order of Distinction Commander Class tomorrow, Blake insists he has no regrets.

“I am happy the path I chose because playing cricket, say I am very good, I am not going to allow for someone else to pick me. What if I am good and they like that person over me and pick that person? So I go with a single sport. Track and field is just me running fast and they can’t stop me in my race. So I am happy with the path that I chose. Cricket will always be my first love, of course, because that was what my father always tie me in front of the TV to watch growing up. So it will always be my first love, but I am happy [with] the path that I chose.”

Jamaican track and field fans are a tough group to please and athletes have to navigate being labelled as weak mentally when they fail to deliver on expectations.

Blake has also encountered this but says his strong upbringing, as well as his training environment, has made him stronger:

“I was born in the ’80s, I wasn’t born in the ’90s where people are soft but I was born into a family where they teach you toughness, you know, and you have to be a go-getter from early and my father really showed me how to be strong, how to be independent, you know. One thing, I didn’t succumb to peer pressure, yes I come under pressure. You know, funny enough, Usain was there. He helped me a lot, to be honest. Daniel Bailey as well, he helped me a lot to push through, to show how people can stay. Because Usain has gone through so much. People boo him and look how he stands tall. Because, at the end of the day, when you are inside, no one is there with you. All that noise, all that vuvuzela, you alone in that head space. So he really taught me a lot and I am grateful for that.”

Blake is among five Jamaicans from the sports fraternity to receive national honours on National Heroes Day.

The others are former national footballer Ricardo ‘Bibi’ Gardner, who was part of Jamaica’s 1998 World Cup squad, former West Indies captain, Rovman Powell, veteran jockey Shane Ellis, and Special Olympian Jefferson Watson Davis.