– Seven-year-old Daniel Benjamin wants to be the next Usain Bolt
By Rawle Toney
First everyone wanted to be like Mike. Now everyone wants to be like `Lightning’ Usain Bolt.
When the 22-year-old Jamaican sprinting sensation Bolt created history at the Summer Olympics in Beijing, earlier this year, his performance captivated the world not the least being a seven-year-old Guyanese boy.
Bolt’s triple gold medal achievements (with two world records) led every young sprinter in the world to want to emulate him.
Michael Jordan has retired. It’s Usain Bolt’s time to shine.
Daniel Benjamin is just seven-years-old and he has just participated at his first National Schools Championships.
What a way to start. Daniel won all his races and was adjudged Champion Boy in the U8 category.
Benjamin’s success came in the 80, 150 and 400-metre events.
“I want to be just like Usain Bolt and be the best sprinter in the world,” Benjamin told Stabroek Sport in an exclusive interview on Saturday.
His father, Michael Benjamin, says his son always liked running and did very well at last year’s inter house sports.
But even though he was very successful at last year’s championships, he was not selected on his district’s team for the Nationals.
This year however was different.
Wowed by Bolt’s lightning performances at this year’s Beijing Olympic Games his son was transformed into a determined athlete bent on similar success on his own horizon.
Now Bolt was his world. All he spoke of was Bolt and how much he wanted to be like him, his father recounted.
With his hero’s performances stuck indelibly in his mind, Daniel began training more intensely.
The FE Pollard Primary School student made a clean sweep of his events at the inter house and Champion-of-Champions athletics meets.
His outstanding performances earned him a place on the East Georgetown District team for the `Nationals’ which was held in Linden at the Mackenzie Sports club Ground (MSC).
The rest, as the saying goes, was history.
The spoken athlete said: “Right now I feel very, very happy because it was my first time running at Nationals. My hardest race was the 400M because I was tired and it was very late in the night,” he recounted.
His father said that he always supported him ever since he declared that he wanted to be an athlete and to see his son reap the fruits of his hard work makes him feel real happy for him.
“My son’s achievement at the National Schools Championships makes me feel very proud. Running is something I see he really likes doing especially since he saw Bolt ran and he would ask to go out and train and so on. Everything he runs for, and the funny thing about it is that none of his other brothers and sisters did anything where athletics is concerned,” said the elder Benjamin.
He also said that his son also does very well scholastically.
Daniel is a member of the Guyana Road Runners Club which is coached by Diablo Jamaal Shabazz.
Last Wednesday he received the prizes that he won at the `Nationals’.
The Championships were originally declared “null and void” by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) but they later reversed that decision.
Asked what’s next for the young sprinter, his father said that he was going to continue to help him achieve his present dream of becoming a national and one day, the best sprinter in the World – just like his idol Usain Bolt.