British Sprinter Faster Than Usain Bolt and Noah Lyles as World Record Broken
A 16-year-old British sprinter nicknamed 'Lightning' has already set faster times than Usain Bolt, Noah Lyles and Gout Gout.
Sprint sensation Divine Iheme has made waves in athletics after clocking blistering speeds as a teenager.
The sprinter, who hails from Radley in Oxfordshire, first burst onto the scene last August when - aged only 14 - he ran 100 metres in a staggering 10.30 seconds.
In the process he set a new U15 world record for 100m - smashing the previous best of 10.51 seconds set by Jamaican starlet Sachin Dennis.
Advert
To put that into perspective, Iheme's time was almost a second quicker than what Lyles - who recently won gold in the 200m at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo - clocked at the same age.
By comparison, Bolt's best time as a 14-year-old was 10.57 seconds, with Australian viral sprint star Gout Gout clocking an identical time as the Jamaican at the same age.
Iheme's time of 10.30 seconds would have placed him third in the men's 100m at the British Athletics Championship in 2024, and remarkably would have been quick enough to reach an Olympic final as recently as 1996.
"I remember on the day the timer was delayed," he told The Telegraph.
"I was crouched, waiting. I saw 10.3 and I started screaming and shouting and running around. I was really surprised. The commentator started going crazy. It was an amazing experience. I loved it."
The third son of two Nigerian former international sprinters, Iheme's talent was spotted an early stage by his mother and coach, Nkiruka.
"I knew when he was in my tummy," she told the BBC. "When I was pregnant, he kept on kicking.
"I am an athlete, his dad and my dad [were athletes]. When he entered primary school, that's when we finally said: 'Yes, we got a talent here we have to nurture.'"
A year on from setting the 100m record, Iheme now also holds the 60m indoor world record for 15-year-olds, which he set in January, while he also won the English Schools' Intermediate Boys 100m title in 10.41 seconds in July.
But he has set his sights on much more.
"I can see myself with an Olympic title to my name in the 100 and the 200, and hopefully it will happen," Iheme told the BBC.
But for now, he has set himself some more realistic immediate targets.
"I'm hoping to run a PB of 10.2 or even lower," he added.
"And I'm aiming to get my 200m down much, much quicker. Sub-21."
However, Iheme says his overall goal is not medals and individual glory, but to make his parents proud and pay them back for years of support.
"I want to make sure that in the future, they can just sit back and relax while I can get them gifts, buy them a house, buy them things for their future," he added.
"The goal is to try and make them happy, make them live a great life."
Topics: Athletics, Usain Bolt, Olympics
Rory O'Callaghan