Lerone Ephraime Clarke (born 7 July 1981) is a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

sprinter who specialises in the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

and the

60 metres 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior ath ...

. He is the former Commonwealth Games champion in the 100 m. His personal best for that distance is 9.99 seconds, set in 2009. He has represented Jamaica three times at the

IAAF World Indoor Championships The World Athletics Indoor Championships are a biennial indoor track and field competition served as the global championship for that version of the sport. Organised by the World Athletics, the competition was inaugurated as the ''World Indoor G ...

and holds the Jamaican record for the indoor 150m.

Career

Early career

Like multiple Olympic champion

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt, , (; born 21 August 1986) is a retired Jamaican sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay. An eight-ti ...

and former Jamaican sprinter Michael Green, Clarke is a former student of

William Knibb Memorial High School William Knibb Memorial High School is a high school in Trelawny Parish, Jamaica. It is named after William Knibb, a 19th-century English missionary. Notable alumni * Marvin Anderson, sprinter *Usain Bolt, widely considered to be the greatest spri ...

. He attended

Lincoln University of Missouri Lincoln University (Lincoln U) is a public, historically black, land-grant university in Jefferson City, Missouri. Founded in 1866 by African-American veterans of the American Civil War, it is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fun ...

in the United States and competed for their Blue Tigers athletic team in 2002 and 2003. His first international appearance for Jamaica came at the 2002 NACAC Under-25 Championships in Athletics, where he led off the Jamaican 4×100 metres relay team to take the bronze medal. He set a personal best of 10.24 seconds at the

2005 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics The 2005 Central American and Caribbean Championships in athletics were held at the Thomas Robinson Stadium in Nassau, Bahamas, between 8–11 July 2005.Finisterre, Terry (2005-07-12)Mothersill and Bolt steal the day – CAC Championships, Fi ...

, coming sixth in the 100 m final and was also part of the relay team which finished in fifth place. This led to his first selection for Jamaica on the world stage: he finished fourth in

4 × 100 m relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

at the 2005 World Championships, together with teammates

Dwight Thomas Dwight Thomas O.D (born 23 September 1980) is a Jamaican sprinter, mainly competing in the 100 metres event and more recently the 110 m hurdles. Career He won the bronze medal at the IAAF World Junior Championships in 1998 at the 100 m and ...

, Ainsley Waugh and

Michael Frater Michael Frater O.D (born 6 October 1982) is a Jamaican retired sprinter who specialised in the 100 metres event. He won a silver medal at the 2005 World Championships and a gold medal at the 2003 Pan American Games for the event. He has al ...

. He earned a spot in the

at the

2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 11th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was held in Moscow from March 10 to March 12, 2006 in the Olimpiyski Sport arena. The announcement by the I ...

and set a personal best of 6.66 seconds in the semi-finals of the event. Outdoors, he represented Jamaica at the

2006 Central American and Caribbean Games The 20th edition of the Central American and Caribbean Games was held in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. The tournament began on July 15 and ended on July 30. Host city *Main host city **Cartagena de Indias *Subsites: ** Barranquilla, Colombia ...

and ran a season's best of 10.28 seconds in the 100 m semi-finals. He was slower in the final, finishing fourth, but led of the relay team to the bronze medals. He had a low key 2007 season, although he achieved a 60 m best of 6.64 seconds at the

Millrose Games The Millrose Games is an annual indoor athletics meet (track and field) held each February in New York City. They started taking place at the Armory in Washington Heights in 2012, after having taken place in Madison Square Garden from 1914 to 2011 ...

and a 100 m best of 10.15 seconds in Kingston, Jamaica.Clarke, Lerone
IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-02-19.

Sub-10 runner

At the start of 2008 he won the 60 m sprint at the Tyson Invitational, but had a poor performance at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships, being eliminated in the heats after a slow start. He competed in only two competitions over 100 m that year: he was a semi-finalist at the Jamaican National Championships and was seventh in the 100 m at the 2008 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics.Lerone Clarke
Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 2012-02-19. Driven on by the success of

Jamaica at the 2008 Summer Olympics image:Jamajko eniras en la Somera Olimpiko 2008.jpg, 300px, the team of Jamaica at the Opening Ceremony Jamaica sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, China from August 8 to August 24, 2008. This was, by far, Ja ...

, he competed extensively in the 2009 outdoor season. He was fifth at the Jamaican Championships and took the 100 m silver medal at the 2009 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics with a significant personal best of 10.08 seconds. He also led off the Jamaican relay team which finished as runners-up. He was selected as a first heat relay runner at the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

and received a gold medal as the Jamaican quartet went on to win the title. He competed at a number of smaller meets in the European circuit before going on to set a personal best time of 9.99 seconds at the

Weltklasse Zürich Weltklasse Zürich ( en, World Class Zurich) is an annual, invitation-only, world-class track and field meeting at the Letzigrund in Zürich, Switzerland, generally held at the end of August or beginning of September. Previously one of the IAAF ...

in August, becoming the 70th man to have broken the

10-second barrier The 10-second barrier is the physical and psychological barrier of completing the 100 metres sprint in under ten seconds. The achievement is traditionally regarded as the hallmark of a world-class male sprinter. Its significance has become less i ...

with an official, legal time. Following this he set a meeting record at

Rovereto Rovereto (; "wood of sessile oaks"; locally: ''Roveredo'') is a city and ''comune'' in Trentino in northern Italy, located in the Vallagarina valley of the Adige River. History Rovereto was an ancient fortress town standing at the frontier ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, recording 10.11 seconds into a headwind to beat Asafa Powell's previous meet best.

Commonwealth champion

In the 2010 indoor season he won at the BW-Bank Meeting, Sparkassen Cup and Erdgas Athletics Meeting (setting a 60 m best of 6.55 seconds at the latter). He was chosen for the third time running to run for Jamaica at the

2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics was held between 12 and 14 March at the Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar. The championships was the first of six IAAF World Athletics Series events to take place in 2010. Bidding and organisation ...

, but was surprisingly eliminated in the heats against lesser opposition. He ran two sub-10-second times at the Doha Athletic Grand Prix, albeit wind-assisted and was a regular competitor on the 2010 IAAF Diamond League circuit. He came fourth at the Jamaican Championships then went on to win a 100 m bronze medal and relay silver medal at the

2010 Central American and Caribbean Games The 21st Central American and Caribbean Games (Spanish: ''XXI Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe, Mayagüez 2010'') took place in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, from 18 July 2010 to 1 August 2010. Bid It was understood that Mayagüez was going to b ...

. With the top Jamaican sprinters opting out of the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, ...

, Clarke was selected to represent his country in the 100 m. He had a fast start in the final and held his lead to win the gold medal, succeeding Asafa Powell as the Commonwealth champion for the event. However, the lack of top athletes was evident from his 10.12-second winning time – the slowest to win the title since

Don Quarrie Donald O'Riley Quarrie CD (born 25 February 1951) is a Jamaican former track and field athlete, one of the world's top sprinters during the 1970s. At the 1976 Summer Olympics he was the gold medallist in the Olympic 200 meters and silver med ...

in 1974. He also won a silver medal with the Jamaican relay team. The year after he led off a Jamaican quartet to win the relay gold medal at the

2011 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics The 2011 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics were held in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. The event served as classifiers for the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and took place from July 15–17, 2011. It was the fourth time P ...

and achieved his season's best of 10.01 seconds to win the individual 100 m title at the

2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games, was an international multi-sport event that was held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby cities of Ciudad Guzmán, ...

. At the 2012

Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix The Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix, formerly known as Aviva Indoor Grand Prix, is an annual indoor track and field competition which is held in mid-February at the Arena Birmingham in Birmingham, England. It is one of a handful of events to hold I ...

he caused an upset by defeating both Asafa Powell and

Nesta Carter Nesta Carter OD (born October 11, 1985) is a retired Jamaican sprinter who specialized in the 100 metres event. Carter was successful as part of the Jamaican 4 x 100 metres relay team, taking gold and setting successive world records at the 2 ...

over 60 m as he ran a Jamaican record time of 6.47 seconds to win the race.Brown, Matthew (2012-02-18)
Liu Xiang, Clarke, Ennis and Defar delight Birmingham
IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-02-19.

Achievements

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Lerone 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Trelawny Parish Athletes (track and field) at the 2011 Pan American Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Jamaica Lincoln Blue Tigers men's track and field athletes Jamaican male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Jamaica Pan American Games gold medalists for Jamaica Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Commonwealth Games gold medallists in athletics World Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in athletics Central American and Caribbean Games bronze medalists for Jamaica Competitors at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games 20th-century Jamaican people 21st-century Jamaican people Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games