For most of his illustrious career, Yohan Blake ran as an Adidas athlete. With them as his shoe sponsor, Blake won the 100m world title in Daegu, South Korea to become the youngest man ever to do so.

That year, he ran a 200m time of 19.26 to become the second fastest man over the distance behind his then training partner Usain Bolt. The following year, he ran 9.69 becoming the second-fastest ever in the 100m. Only Usain Bolt’s 9.58 is faster.

However, this weekend when he takes to the track at Jamaica’s National Athletics Championships in Kingston, Blake will be competing in Puma gear.

The announcement was made on Puma’s Instagram page on Wednesday.
“A new chapter begins. Welcome, @yohanblake to the PUMA family” was the simple post under a picture of the man once known as ‘The Beast’, who this weekend will be attempting to win a spot on Jamaica’s team to the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

The 33-year-old ‘Beast’ a veteran of three Olympiads and four World Championships will face a brigade of rising stars of Oblique Seville, Ackeem Blake, De’Andre Daley and Bouwahjgie Nkrumie and hungry lions like Julian Forte, Nigel Ellis and Michael Campbell, who are among the 25 entrants vying for a spot on the Jamaican team.

So far this season, Blake has run a season-best time of 10.05 set at the FBK Games in Hengelo. The time makes him the fifth-fastest Jamaica this year behind Ackeem Blake (9.89), Seville (9.95), Nkrumie (9.99) and Forte (10.03).