BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Warren Weir born October 1989 is a Jamaican sprinter, who specialises in the 200 metres. He was the bronze medallist in the event at the 2012 London Olympics, helping Jamaica sweep the medals. He set his personal best of 19.84 seconds in the Olympics final. He trains with the Glen Mills-coached Racers Track Club, alongside Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake.
Career
At the start of his career, Weir competed in the short sprints and the 110 metres hurdles. Born in Trelawny Parish, he ran the 100 m and 200 m forCalabar High School at the Jamaican High School Championships. At the 2007 Jamaican junior championships he set a hurdles best of 13.65 seconds for second place and set a 100 m dash best of 10.69 seconds. He was a hurdles finalist at the 2007 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships and a silver medallist at the 2008 CARIFTA Games, where he also shared in the 4×100 metres relay gold medal. In his first appearance on the global stage, Weir reached the semi-finals at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics. He competed sparingly in his first years as a senior, although he did run personal bests in the 100 m (10.50) and the 400 metres hurdles (53.28) in 2009.
Weir began to emerge as a 200 m specialist in 2011 after joining the Racers Track Club under coach Glen Mills. He and Mills noticed that the hurdles were leaving him with knee pain and both decided that Weir should focus on sprinting instead. He dipped under 21 second for the first time and placed sixth at the Jamaican Championships. He was invited to European meetings for the first time and performed well at his first Diamond League meeting, taking second place to Walter Dix with a personal best of 20.43 seconds into a strong headwind. He began 2012 by bringing his 200 m best down to 20.21, then 20.13 seconds. A time of 20.08 seconds brought him third place at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York in June.
At the Jamaican Olympic Trials in 2012, Weir broke twenty seconds with a personal best of 19.99 seconds in the 200 m semi final and a third place finish in the final, behind Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt, earned him a spot on the Jamaican team for the 2012 Summer Olympics. In the Olympic 200 m final he was a surprise bronze medallist, securing a new personal best of 19.84 seconds in the process. His medal made it an all-Jamaican podium finish alongside fellow Racers Track Club athletes Bolt and Blake – the first time Jamaica had achieved such a medal sweep at the Olympics.
Weir started out his 2013 season with a victory of 20.11 seconds in the Adidas Grand Prix in New York. In June, he registered a 10.02 100m run, a massive personal best from his previous record of 10.51 seconds in 2008. Later in the 2013 Jamaican National Championships, Weir cruised to the finish line in the 200m final in 19.79 seconds, tying Bolt's world leading mark at that point, which was surpassed by Tyson Gay's 19.74 performance in the same day.
He is known for saying "No English, straight Patois," sparking calls on social networks for T-shirts to be printed with the phrase.
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