INSIDE THE STOPWATCH BY HUBERT LAWRENCE

When Dexter Lee won the World Youth 100-metre title in 2007, he achieved a goal that had eluded every other Jamaican male sprint in history: the goal of winning a major global 100-metre title. Now, at the junior level anyway, he has made a happy habit of it. Earlier this week, he repeated as World Junior 100 champion in Moncton, Canada.

His victory last Wednesday is just the latest event in a season long emergence of a new group of young Jamaican male sprinters.

Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell have supplied Jamaican fans with an almost non-stop supply of sprint headlines. Now, led by Lee, there is a new group of sprint hit makers waiting in the wings.

Yohan Blake has overcome a dodgy start to his 2010 season with runs of 10.00 and 9.95 seconds. Oshane Bailey rode a string of personal best times to surprise 2005 World silver medallist Michael Frater to win the National Championships before placing second at the NACAC Under-23 Championships.

Third in those National Championships was Kemari Roach. He made his presence felt earlier by winning the Penn Relays College Mens’ 100 in April. Add Jacques Harvey, another NACAC 100 finalist, and Rasheed Dwyer, NACAC 200 bronze medallist, to your considerations and you see that Jamaica is fully stocked with new name prospects.

Broken 10 seconds

At almost 25, Nesta Carter is a little older and faster than all of those listed above, but if he can conquer his recurrent injury problems, he will add to the Olympic relay gold medal he won with Powell, Frater and Bolt in Beijing.

The young hopefuls have done well to get this far but there is no easy way up. Blake is the only one amongst the newcomers who has broken 10 seconds for 100 metres and now he has done it in both 2009 and 2010.

Bailey may be next as his string of personal bests ignited with runs of 10.18 and 10.14 at Nationals and a 10.11 at NACAC. Roach joined in with a time of 10.13 seconds in the semis at the Nationals.

Bolt and Powell share the world leading time of 9.82 seconds and Carter has twice beaten Blake this year, at the UTECH and Jamaica Invitational. As I write, the stocky MVP sprinter is the third fastest Jamaican of all time at 9.91 with Blake fourth at 9.93 seconds.

Days numbered

Most people believe that Frater’s days as a top Jamaican sprinter are numbered, but they’d best not dismiss him too soon. The little man from Trelawny is a superb big meet sprinter. You don’t win the 2003 Pan-Am Games and 2005 World Champs silver and reach the Olympic final without being really good.

Thanks to Bolt’s win at last year’s Berlin World Championships, Jamaica will be able to select four men for the 2011 World Championships. Like all defending champions, Bolt has a reserved spot in the 100 metre line-up. Otherwise, these young guns would be battling the established stars for just three spaces in the individual 100.

Reigning champions

That battle is left for 2012, since the Olympics still doesn’t reserve places for reigning champions. If that were the case in 2008, Jamaica might have gone 1-2-2-2 at the Beijing Olympics with Veronica Campbell-Brown adding the extra silver medal. Jamaica is in an enviable position.

Our top male sprinters are young enough to be fast next year, in London and in Moscow where the World Championships will be held in 2013. Should they falter, move to other events or retire before then, the reinforcements look capable of doing a good job.

In the medium term, there is an opportunity for the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association to plan the preparation of our 4×100 teams.

Relays teams

Perhaps we will see black, green and gold teams at the 2011 Penn Relays, the Jamaica Invitational and at selected European meets after the team emerges from our National Championships.

Right now, the best thing we can do is congratulate Dexter Lee and his handlers on a job well done.

Hubert Lawrence, author of the Champs 100 book, has covered local and international athletics since 1987.