'Slow cooking': Jerome Blake enjoying journey to become Canada's fastest sprinter

Jerome Blake's rise to becoming Canada's fastest man this season has been a matter of "slow cooking."

The sprinter from Kelowna, B.C., has enjoyed a career year, in which he's added another layer to with his first national title on Sunday in Ottawa. Blake, who turns 30 on Aug. 18, set a new meet record of 19.95 seconds, the first time he's gone sub-20 across 200 metres.

He also went sub-10 in the 100 for the first time in his career on June 21, running 9.97 in Germany. Blake, who was disqualified for a false start in the 100 semis at the Canadian track and field championships, also owns a win over 2023 world bronze medallist in the 100, Botswana's Letsile Tebogo, on July 15 in Italy.

"What a lot of people don't seem to understand is, yeah, I'm turning 30 [on Aug. 18] but in theory, I've only been training for five or six years as a professional," Blake said. "Because before that I was running club track. And club track is like, you start in October, you finish in July or early August and that's it.

"Most of the time during club track, I would only train three days a week, two days a week. The rest of the time I'm spending on a film set or doing model shoots, so I never really took it very serious."

Blake's move to Florida in 2020 to work with famed coach Dennis Mitchell turned things around.

"Moving to Florida really gave me an experience," Blake said. "Going training with Dennis Mitchell and understand that there's a different level of training and understanding that it's going to take more than just two days a week training.

"And now, I'm in a place where I'm very happy, and I understand the type of work we need to do to get to where I need to get. I call it … slow cooking. It's been good."

Much of Blake's time in the