KINGSTON, Jamaica - High in the grandstand of the National Stadium here, Akeem Bloomfield is near-giddy with euphoria.
BloomfieldIt’s the last Saturday in March and Kingston College, Bloomfield’s former high school, is surging towards breaking a long losing streak at Jamaica’s ISSA Boys and Girls Championships.
Each K.C. triumph on the track or in the field draws a fist pump, furious hand clapping or a primal scream. Bloomfield is so amped watching, it appears he could burst from the white T-shirt with his alma mater’s name stylishly scrawled across the front.
He’s a few years separated from his last “Champs” competition, when Bloomfield was among the main attractions at arguably the biggest high school meet in the world. Yet school camaraderie and the thrill of competition in front of a stadium of more than 30,000 raucous fans still gets him to occasionally catapult his huge frame from his seat.
“O.K., to be honest, watching my school at Champs is like watching the Olympic Games,” a calmer, smiling Bloomfield said during a break in the competition.
“Even when I was competing at Champs I never felt so excited as watching the guys from my school run. It’s a wonderful feeling … I’m just so happy that I took the time out to be here to see the guys pull it off.”
BLOWN AWAY
Yet even as Bloomfield submerged himself in the boiling cauldron that is the Champs spirit, he knew it would soon be back to business. The first Jamaican to break 45 seconds in the 400 meters in high school and officially run under 44 seconds in the 400 and 20 seconds in the 200 meters is now a full fledged professional. He’s no longer a student, not at K.C nor Auburn University, where he spent two years before departing last year. Now 21, Bloomfield is aiming to establish a legacy of his own at track’s ultimate level.
So he headed back to the United States. Back to training. Back to work. There’s plenty to do. While 2018 proved a break-out season, 2019 is even more crucial. The Jamaica national trials and, hopefully, the IAAF World Championships await Bloomfield.
Track is begging for new, extraordinary talent following the retirement of its global face Usain Bolt, Bloomfield’s compatriot. Every time he approaches the grandstand here, looming statues of Bolt and other Jamaican greats, like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Merlene Ottey and Donald Quarrie, remind him of the huge shoes to fill.
EXPECTATIONS
Observers share a curiosity about Bloomfield’s future reserved for a select few pegged for greatness.
“Going forward I see him as Jamaica’s best prospect for the 400 meters because of his speed,” explained Raymond “K.C.” Graham, who was a coach at Kingston College when Bloomfield attended.
Bloomfield doesn't undersell himself. But he’s cautious not to get tangled in the hype, which has strangled so many “potentially great” Jamaican school stars before.
“My first goal is to stay healthy,” he said with some assurance. “I know that once I’m healthy amazing things are going to happen … My goals are to make the (World Championship) team and make the final and then go from there.”
With his unique combination of speed and size - his stride length gobbles up ground in Bolt-like fashion - Bloomfield’s “from there” could make for a magnificent revelation. However, injury is a major concern. Jamaicans at home remember Bloomfield’s no-show for the 4x400 relay final at Champs. Sources told Caribbean Today he was cautioned not to run after breaking the quarter mile record. Those in the U.S. recalled Bloomfield pulling up hurt at the Penn Relays weeks later. In his final year at Auburn, an assistant coach described how the school had carefully managed his competition to avoid breakdown.
“We had to make sure he was fit on the biggest days,” the coach said at “Penns”.
DOUBTERS
Last month, Bloomfield fueled the doubters by failing to finish the 200 at the Grenada Invitational. Outsiders are concerned he may be too fragile for big time stardom. Those closer seem sure any problems can be fixed.
“When I first met him he was like a baby giant,” explained Neil Harrison, who coached Bloomfield at K.C. “Big, talented, but not strong. So he was susceptible to injury. But he’s smart and knows what he wants and how to get it. He will get stronger and he will be very dangerous.”
Pro should mean better management, resulting in a fitter, more durable Bloomfield.
Still, observers drool over what Bloomfield’s “biggest days” could look like. His ability to sprint at his size - 6’ 4” - was obvious at school in Jamaica, where he once anchored K.C.’s formidable 4x100 meters team. It draws inevitable comparisons with Bolt, another tall man who wasn’t immediately tabbed as “fast” yet became the best sprinter of all. That’s one reason, despite his immense promise in the 400, Bloomfield is eyeing the 200 as well. The final decision, he said late March, was still being calculated.
“I’m doing both the 200 and the 400,” he explained. “The 400 for strength, 200 for speed and then I decide where I go from there, in terms of which I will be going to the (national) trials for.”
The trials will decide who represents Jamaica at this year’s IAAF World Championships. If Bloomfield survives, Doha will be his first major senior international test for Jamaica. It’s a stage where reputations can take off … or crash.
TRADITION
Despite the favorable projections, Bloomfield isn’t about to compare himself to multiple time Olympic and World Championship gold medalist Bolt. Not now, he said. Never.
“I don’t think anyone can ever surpass Usain Bolt and I don’t think he should be compared with mere mortals like me,” Bloomfield told reporters after knocking off a quality 200 meters field in London last year to establish a new personal best. “If I accomplish even half of what he did it would be an amazing achievement.”
Yet he isn’t backing from the challenge.
“Whatever event I compete in, I shall be giving my best and I do think I have the potential to be among world beaters as anybody else,” said Bloomfield. “… Once I’m healthy big things are going to happen.”
No matter which route he chooses - 200, 400 or both - Bloomfield is certain to encounter fierce competition, starting at trials. The country is still blessed with immense talent in both events, despite Bolt’s retirement in 2017. Bloomfield is certainly faster than the 10.42 seconds he clocked as a high schooler in 2014, which the track’s governing body IAAF lists as his personal best in the 100. More accurate readings on his potential show in the 19.81 for the 200 meters run last July and the 43.94 in the 400 meters the month before.
Harrison believes Bloomfield could elevate to rarified status.
“He can easily become a sub-10 seconds (100), sub-20 (200) and low 43 (400),” said the coach. “That’s his potential.”
HEIR
Track is not yet ready, for example, to anoint Bloomfield heir apparent to Wayde Van Niekerk, who stunned everyone with a 43.03 world record in the 400 at the 2016 Olympics. The South African has clocked 9.94 in the 100 and 19.84 in the 200, which earned him second place at the 2017 World Championships.
Bloomfield’s former college 400 rivals, Americans Michael Norman and Fred Kerley, are also threats. Last month, Norman, 21, ran 43.45, the fourth fastest ever 400. Kerley’s best is 43.70.
Challengers also loom closer to home. Several Jamaicans, like Nathon Allen, a former Auburn teammate with a personal best 44.19, have no intention of meekly surrendering a national 400 crown to Bloomfield. Meanwhile, Steven Gardiner of The Bahamas, for example, has run 19.75 in the half lap and 43.87 in the quarter mile, an event in which he picked up silver at the 2017 World Championships behind Van Niekerk. Grenada’s Kirani James has won 400 gold at both Olympics and World Championships.
As he rises, Bloomfield shouldn’t expect any of those stars to fade from the world stage anytime soon. Van Niekerk and James are 26. So too is Rusheen McDonald, Jamaica’s 400 national record holder with 43.93. Gardiner and Allen are 23.
Time, a great Jamaican once sang, alone will tell. K.C. broke a seven-year Champs drought. Bloomfield, too, is biding his run to the top. He, and track fans, are anxious to see what’s next. They once told another tall, big striding Jamaican that sprinting would never be his thing. Until he owned it.
“I think with potential, good training that anything is possible,” said Bloomfield, who opened 2019 with a brisk 20.24 in the 200 at a Florida meet in Florida.
“It’s just for us to not think limits … It’s just to wait and see what happens.”
