Saturday was a day to remember for Canada’s Jerome Blake, who, for the first time ever, broke the elusive 10-second barrier in the 100m–becoming the sixth Canadian in history to do so. The breakthrough race took place at the International Anhalt Meeting Dessau at Paul Greifzu Stadium in Germany.
Blake set a new meet record of 9.97 seconds, hitting the world championship standard of 10.00 and taking a dominant win over South Africa’s Tsebo Matsoso (10.03) and Nigeria’s Favour Ashe (10.08).
The performance marks the fastest time by a Canadian this year and the first under 10 seconds.
Blake ran his former personal best of 10.00 in May 2022 and matched it again less than two months later. But this season, the 29-year-old has been on a tear. He opened his outdoor season with a 10.00 at the Pepsi Florida Relays, but the wind reading of +2.1 m/s exceeded the legal limit. He’s also fresh off a 10.09-second performance at the Paavo Nurmi Games last Tuesday. Now, he’s officially confirmed he’s in his best form yet.
“Just when you think the weekend couldn’t get any better, this happened,” Blake wrote on Facebook. “New PB [of] 9.97. Couldn’t have done this without the team I have in my corner–very thankful for you all. Onwards and upwards.”
Blake was born in Buff Bay, Jamaica; his family moved to Kelowna, B.C., when he was 18, and he officially became a Canadian citizen at 23. Since then, he’s become a two-time Olympian and a dependable member of Team Canada’s 4x100m relay squad–which raced to Olympic gold last August in Paris.
Canada’s top 100m list
Donovan Bailey: 9.84 (1996)
Bruny Surin: 9.84 (1999)
Andre De Grasse: 9.89 (2021)
Ben Johnson: 9.95 (1986)*
Aaron Brown: 9.96 (2016)
Jerome Blake: 9.97 (2025)
*Not recognized by Athletics Canada.
Ben Johnson doping scandal series coming to Paramount+ Canada
