As a youngster growing up in Bogue Hill, near Montego Bay, Yohan Blake used to skip school to bowl at a stick in the back yard. "Cricket is my first love," he admits. "As a boy I'd rather have played for the West Indies than go to the Olympics. That was my dream."

Instead of becoming the next Michael Holding, at the age of 22 the boy from Bogue Hill has become the man who has knocked Usain Bolt for six - not once, but twice - on the eve of the London Olympics. In the 100 metres final at the Jamaican trials at the weekend, Bolt got caught napping in his starting blocks and couldn't catch his training partner, Blake winning by 0.11sec in 9.75sec. In the 200m final, Bolt was ahead going into the home straight but Blake powered past him to win by 0.03sec in 19.80sec.

"It's back to the drawing board," Bolt said. "I feel a little bit weak but I have three weeks and hopefully it will be enough to get me into shape. I am the Olympic champion and I have to show the world that I am the best."

For the time being, Blake can claim to be the best sprinter not just in Jamaica but in the world. He has struck down the Lightning Bolt twice in 48 hours. He has shown that his victory in the World Championship 100m final in Daegu last year, when Bolt was disqualified for a false start, was far from hollow. He has demonstrated that his 19.26sec clocking for 200m in Brussels at the end of last summer was no fluke indication of his potential over the longer distance.

All of which sets the scene for a mouth-watering double head-to-head at the London Olympics. Think Ovett v Coe, but with a Jamaican high-speed twist. Nobody is writing off Bolt, least of all Blake. "I know what Usain has to offer," he said on Monday. "I know he was not 100 per cent here."

Glen Mills, the veteran sprint guru who coaches both men, warned: "Usain may be a little off at the moment but by the Olympics he'll be on top of his game."

Bolt was just about at the top of his game at the last Olympics, in Beijing four years ago, blitzing to gold in the 100m in 9.69sec and 200m in 19.30sec (world-record times he lowered to 9.58sec and 19.19sec at the World Championships in Berlin the following year). Late in 2008, he was asked on Television Jamaica's Morning Time show if there were "any athletes out there who he saw as a potential threat". Without hesitation, Bolt replied: "Watch out for Yohan Blake. He works like a beast. He's there with me step for step in training."

Blake was 18 at the time and did not even make the Jamaican team for Beijing. He had finished fourth in the 100m at the World Junior Championships in 2006, 0.05sec behind the winner, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey of Great Britain.

It was in the summer of 2008 that Blake moved to Kingston to join Bolt's sprint stable, the Racers Track Club. It was not long before his work ethic prompted the easy-going Bolt to call him "the Beast". The nickname has stuck. "Why do they call me the Beast?" Blake says. "Because even when we have breaks I still train. On Christmas break, coach Mills has to call and say, 'You are on a break. You need to take some rest'.”

"That is how I work. When you guys are sleeping at night, I am out there working. That's why they call me the Beast. I work twice as hard as everybody else."

The remarkable thing is that Blake and Bolt work together side by side every day on the track at the University of West Indies.

When Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe were at their peak as the British kings of middle-distance running, they would go to such lengths to avoid one another in races that one broadsheet national newspaper ran an editorial lamenting: "It is as if they are playing a game of postal chess."

Blake has overcome one blip in his career. In 2009, he was one of five Jamaican sprinters who tested positive for a stimulant contained in an energy drink. He served a three-month suspension. A quietly spoken soul, Blake says that when he is not beasting away on the track and in the gym, he prefers to stay at home playing dominoes rather than going out partying like Bolt.

Born: December 26, 1989, Jamaica

Blake won a bronze in the 100m at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing, and a gold in the 4x100m relay

In July 2009, he became the youngest sprinter to break into the sub-10-second club, clocking 9.96

Tested positive for a stimulant just before the 2009 World Championships in Berlin and later received a three-month ban

Last year Blake became, at 21 years 244 days, the youngest gold medalist in the 100m in history at the World Championships. Carl Lewis had won the title at the inaugural World Championships in 1983 at 22 years, 38 days Trains with Usain Bolt, is known as Beast due to his tough regimen

“I'm wonderful at cricket, at Twenty20. West Indies are down, England is my team. I always wanted to be a cricketer, but I found a love for track and field. But I still love cricket. But track and field has taken over my life.”

— Blake after winning the 100m title at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, in 2011

Mumbai, July 3
The fit-again duo of opening batsman Virender Sehwag and pacer Zaheer Khan is all set to return to the Indian squad after missing the Asia Cup when the selectors meet here tomorrow to choose the side for the upcoming cricket tour of Sri Lanka. The duo, along with Zaheer's pace understudy Umesh Yadav, sat out of the Asia Cup in Bangladesh in March on fitness grounds.

They were also not part of the squad for the one-off Twenty 20 International in South Africa on March 30 which was India's last international engagement. With these three players expected to be available for selection, the squad for the Lanka tour - comprising only One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 ties - is set to see some changes from the side which flopped in the Asia Cup and lost the rain-hit T20 match to the hosts in Johannesburg by D/L method.

With Sehwag back in action, one of the other middle order batsmen from the Asia Cup squad will have to be sacrificed and Bengal's Manoj Tiwary could be the man to make way for the former's return.

It's not clear whether Tendulkar, who had set the fabulous record of 100 international hundreds in the previous 50-over competition that India took part in, is available for the Lanka tour following his nomination as a Rajya Sabha member.

According to selection committee sources, things would become clear just before the five-member team sits down to choose the touring squad when the Cricket Board's convener Sanjay Jagdale apprises them about the availability and fitness concerns, if any, of players in contention.

If by any chance Tendulkar decides to opt out of what is widely perceived to be a low-key series commencing on July 21, Ajinkya Rahane is the man most likely to be named as the third opener after Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

Another subject of debate could be whether experienced off spinner Harbhajan Singh should be given a recall after having been kept in cold storage for so long.

The low bouncing, spinning tracks in Lanka could prompt the selectors to include the feisty bowler who led Mumbai Indians to a play-off spot in the Indian Premier League. Rahul Sharma was part of the squad that went to Dhaka and South Africa and looks most likely to be left out if the selectors decide to bring back Harbhajan though it would mean lack of variety with R Ashwin almost certain of a place.

In the pace bowling department, the availability of Zaheer and Yadav means two from the quartet of Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Ashok Dinda and Irfan Pathan would have to make way unless Pathan makes it as a bowling all-rounder. Ravindra Jadeja is fighting to retain his place in the team but his main rival Yusuf Pathan too has not really impressed and the selectors could be left in a dilemma on the matter. — PTI

New Delhi, July 3
For the second year running, the prestigious Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy may not be awarded to the best sports university in the country. The Delhi High Court has directed the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) to present before it all the relevant documents on July 10 to support its claim that Punjabi University, Patiala, deserved the trophy for the year 2010-2011. The award of the trophy to the Punjabi University was challenged by Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, in the Delhi High Court, which stayed the decision.

GNDU’s objection was that Punjabi University had submitted the relevant information regarding the university’s sports performance for the year 2010-2011 to AIU much later than the June 30, 2011. After AIU extended the last date to July 15, Punjabi University submitted the details on July 11. This was challenged by GNDU, which submitted documents to prove that even Bombay University submitted the details, by post, only on July 7.

GNDU also says that Punjabi University had added points for their athletes’ participation in the Commonwealth Games, World University Games and the Asian Games, though no university can claim points for mere participation. GNDU filed a RTI request with the AIU in connection with the award of the trophy to Punjabi University, but it is yet to receive any information.

“We had filed the RTI application almost a year ago,” GNDU Director of Sports Dr (Prof) Kanwaljeet Singh told The Tribune. He said the AIU’s facile argument was that it had no “dispatch and receiving system” for documenting such records.

He said though GNDU has been included in the calendar of events to be organised by various universities in the country, it has been awarded events for which it had not applied for, or wanted to host. “These events are being thrust upon on us by AIU as there are no takers for them,” he added.

He said AIU was also making moves to allow only points earned in the Inter-University competitions to be considered for the MAKA Trophy, which would be unfair to top universities like GNDU, whose sportspersons often the Indian colours. For instance, Manpreet Singh is a member of the Indian hockey team for the London Olympics while Rahul Sharma is an international cricketer.

He said GNDU had also strongly protested against the holding of the Annual General Body Meeting of the AIU at Punjabi University on June 5, as GNDU was not invited to this crucial meeting, and many other universities had also been kept out. The Federation of University Sports in India (FUSI) had written to the Sports Ministry to protest that the meeting was held without informing many prominent universities in the country.

Colombo, July 3
Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara smashed successive centuries against Pakistan to light up the rain-hit second Test in Colombo today.

The hosts, replying to Pakistan's first innings total of 551-6 declared, took their overnight score of 70-1 to 278-5 by stumps on the fourth day at the Sinhalese Sports Club.

Dilshan scored 121 and Sangakkara was unbeaten on 144 as the pair put on 225 runs for the second wicket after opener Tharanga Paranavitana fell for zero yesterday.

Pakistan grabbed four wickets in the final session to leave Sri Lanka still needing 74 more runs to save the follow-on on the last day.

But a draw appears likely as rain once again wiped off two hours of play in the post-lunch session after bad weather on the previous two days restricted the bowlers to only 71 of the stipulated 180 overs. More rain has been forecast for the final day tomorrow. — AFP

London, July 3
Petra Kvitova's hopes of defending her Wimbledon title were shot to pieces in a hail of Centre Court canon fire from Serena Williams who ousted the defending champion 6-3, 7-5 in their quarter-final on Tuesday.

The quality of tennis on show could have graced a final as both players tore into each other with rasping serves and ferocious groundstrokes, but it was the greater power and fight of the four-times winner that won out.

She broke in the sixth game of the first set when Kvitova sent a crosscourt forehand wide and then closed it out when the Czech sent a backhand return long.

Williams saved break point in the 10th game of the second and then made her opponent pay, breaking the very next game before serving it out to set up a semi-final against either Belarus's Victoria Azarenka or Austria's Tamira Paszek.

Andy Murray returned at midday to finish off Croatian Marin Cilic 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 in one of five men's fourth round ties unfinished because of Monday's rain.

Murray will face Spain's David Ferrer in the quarter-finals in a repeat of their Roland Garros clash after the seventh seed thrashed Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. — Reuters

London, July 3
Spanish Formula One driver Maria De Villota was fighting for her life today after suffering serious injuries during a crash in testing for the Marussia team, it was confirmed. A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said De Villota had sustained "life-threatening injuries" in the early morning crash at Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire. Marussia confirmed in a statement that the 32-year-old test driver from Madrid had been transferred to hospital after her car collided with a support vehicle during a test lap.

"At approximately 9.15am (0815 GMT) this morning, the Marussia F1 Team's Test Driver Maria De Villota had an accident in the team's MR-01 race car at Duxford Airfield where she was testing the car for the first time," Marussia said.

"The accident happened at the end of her first installation run and involved an impact with the team's support truck. "Maria has been transferred to hospital. Once her medical condition has been assessed a further statement will be issued." — AFP