Jeneko Place: Bermuda’s Future Usain Bolt?
Comparing the times of Bermuda’s 16 year old sprinter Jeneko Place to four Olympic Gold medalists times when they were his age, shows an astounding thing – Jeneko is clocking faster times.
Jeneko was the top Bermudian athlete at the 2010 Carifta Games, winning two medals in the highly competitive 100 and 200m races. The entire team did an outstanding job, winning 10 medals overall and finishing 5th on the medal table.
Despite being only 16 years old, Jeneko Place ran both races only a split second off the Olympic qualifying times. He ran the 100m in 10.71, and the 200m in 21.27. These were personal best times for the Cedarbridge Academy student.
We compared these times to times of all the members of 2008 Jamaican Olympic 4×100 relay team when they were his age. The relay team won the Gold Medal in 37.10, a new world record.
Analyzing the times of the team [Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Usain Bolt, and Asafa Powell] shows something truly remarkable – Jeneko comes out very favorably, literally putting up faster times then all four members when they were his age.
Sample times, ages and event for the sprinters is shown below, Jeneko’s times are better then all listed:
Usain Bolt
- Aged 15: 2001 Carifta Games
- 200 metre time of 21.81
Asafa Powell
- Aged 17: 2000 ISSA High School Championships
- 200 metre time of 23.07
- 100 metre time of 11.45
Michael Frater
- Aged 15: 1998 Carifta Games
- 100 metre time of 10.85
Nesta Carter
- Aged 16: ISSA Championships
- 100 metre time of 11.58
- 200 metre time of 22.54
Video of the 100 metres finals race where Jeneko placed 2nd:
Of course, this isn’t a 100% accurate analysis and is wildly unscientific due to a wide variety of reasons: better times may be not listed, sprinters develop at different stages, wind assists, natural historical time progressions and small variants in ages etc, but it is a general overview to show exactly how much potential Jeneko Place possesses.
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