Nickel Ashmeade, the lanky, euphoniously named runner, wearing Jamaica's ubiquitous green and gold, would be on the second leg in a heat St. Jago's should have dominated.
Many on the tiny, track-obsessed Caribbean island that has supplanted the U.S. as the world's sprint king believe Ashmeade is the heir to Bolt, who succeeded Asafa Powell, who followed other Jamaican greats such as Donald Quarrie and Herb McKenley.
"Maybe there will never be another Usain," said Donald Bailey, who lives in St. Catherine's, just a sprint away from St. Jago's. "But this boy [Ashmeade] is coming on very strong. Now that he has dedicated himself to running, you can see that look of greatness in him."
In 2007, Ashmeade and St. Jago's won this event in a meet-record 39.96 seconds, the first sub-40 400 in the Relays' scholastic history. Since then he has earned a fistful of medals at two world youth championships and a growing reputation as Jamaica's next great sprinter.
His late-blooming success has led some to call him another Powell, whose 100-meter world record was shattered by Bolt in Beijing but whose high school career was less than sensational.
But it's Ashmeade's effortless, straight-up style, the passion aglow in his dark eyes, and his reputation for being a fitful trainer that have brought the comparisons to Bolt, who lit up the 2008 Olympics with three astounding gold-medal runs.
"People would tell me I wasn't as focused as I should be, but I couldn't see it," Ashmeade would say later Friday. "Now I realize the hard work it takes."
As the Penn Relays starter instructed first-leg runners to come set, Ashmeade shook his body and turned back toward the teammate who would hand him the baton, Andre Walsh.
Now 19, Ashmeade had finished second by eyelashes in the 200 meters at the last two youth world championships. At the 2008 CARFITA (Caribbean Free Trade Association) Games, he blew away a stacked junior 200 field in 20.16.
