Introducing 15-year-old Divine ‘Lightning’ Iheme.
A star in the making who has already recorded faster times than both Usain Bolt and current Olympic champion Noah Lyles at the same age.
Devine has already made a name for himself in junior athletics culminating in a historic run last August when aged just 14.
The then Year 9 student ran 100 metres in just 10.30 seconds.
For a better understanding of his feat, Bolt’s fastest time as a 14-year-old was 10.57 seconds, while Iheme’s time was almost a second faster than Lyles.
It demolished the previous world age-group record of 10.51sec by Jamaica’s Sachin Dennis.
In fact, Devine’s time of 10.30sec was so impressive that it would have secured him a third place finish in the British men’s 100m championship last year.
Better yet, it would have secured him a place in the 100m Olympic final in 1996
Devine didn’t stop there. Last month he broke the indoor 60m world best for a 15-year-old, recording a time of 6.71sec, breaking a 23-year-old record set by American J-Mee Samuels.
The youngster was back in action last weekend at the England Age Group Championships in Sheffield, qualifying from his 60m heat but not running in the semi-final.
Key to his success has been mum Nkiruka who herself was an international sprinter for Nigeria, prior to her moving to England after the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
She has provided a great source of support to her son and the pair opened up on their commitment to athletics in an interview with The Telegraph.
“She’s tough – really tough – very specific,” Devine said. “He loves running so, so much,” his mum Nkiruka added. “He doesn’t want to miss his training so, if he doesn’t do his homework, it’s ‘no training’. The language we use is, ‘no pain, no gain’ or ‘pain now, play later’. Some children are just in the house playing games.”
Recalling a heavily uneven playing ground during school sports days, Devine said: “I’d always win the 75m dash and the 200m by a big margin.”
Long jump was also a procession for Devine who took part in other activities such as foam javelin throwing and a 600m endurance test.
But it was sprinting that quickly became his event of choice and one he excelled in more than the others.
“I hated the 600m – I remember crying,” he said “I thought, ‘Yeah, I can do my own events and I want to take this seriously from now on’. Mum didn’t want to push me until I said I wanted to do it.
“All she says is, ‘Focus on the one main goal’. It was two years ago that I ran my first sub 11 seconds – 10.86 when I was 13 – that was my first big thing. I have just been gradually working and working.”
Success came with multiple age-group national titles which led him to last August and a brush with an international audience at Lee Valley when he became the fastest 15-year-old in history.
“I remember on the day the timer was delayed,” Devine said. “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.”
His mum was visiting family at the time in Nigeria but they were able to watch footage of the race.
“We were jumping up and down – there was a window – and, in the excitement, I banged my head,” Nkiruka recalled.