Derrick Atkins

For hailing from a country that has produced such great sprinters such as Tonique Williams-Darling, Avard Moncur and Debbie Ferguson, it took a hand injury to get Derrick Atkins into athletics. Atkins had been primarily a volleyball player, but an injury to his hand curtailed that path, at which point Atkins elected to give sprinting a serious try. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he has discovered his trie calling.

At Dickinson State University in North Dakota, Atkins was a seven-time NAIA national champion in indoor and outdoor track, and helped to lead the Blue Hawks to national team titles in 2004 and 2005. Along the way, Atkins set national junior records at 55m and 100m, and won the 100m at the Bahamian national championships, earning himself a spot at the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki.

Since failing to advance beyond the first round at the World Championships in Helsinki, Atkins has improved his sprinting ability immensely. In 2006, Atkins won his first area title, winning the 100m at the NACAC Under-23 Championships, in addition to capturing silver in the 200m. The next year began with a good omen, as Atkins broke the 10 second barrier for the first time in his life with his very first race of the year. Atkins then added key victories in Athens and Paris on his way to the IAAF World Championships in Osaka.

In Osaka, Atkins surprised many pundits by running past then-world record holder Asafa Powell to win the silver medal behind American Tyson Gay, and confirmed himself as one of the top three 100m runners in the world. It makes sense then that Atkins will try the same method in 2008: run well, run under the radar and grab a medal in Beijing.