'Fastest man in rugby' in action at Rio Seven

Published Jul 27, 2016

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Rio de Janeiro - American Carlin Isles has been touted as the fastest man in rugby, but his journey to the lofty heights of international sevens rugby and the Olympics has been a life-long trek.

Isles, whose sporting ambitions started out in American football and track and field, has a personal best of 10.13 seconds over 100 metres.

Blitzbok speedster Seabelo Senatla compares with a personal best of 10.6 seconds over the same distance. Isles' 60-metre dash record of 6.68 seconds still stands to this day at Ashfield University in Ohio, where he was enrolled as a student.

“I went to a predominantly white school and I didn't just want to be a dumb black kid who was fast, I wanted to use my gift and I felt like I could take that to a professional level,” he said.

Speed plus angles equals power!!! pic.twitter.com/h1HeZab9iZ

— Carlin Isles (@Carlin_Isles) July 22, 2016

“I used to race the school bus to school and I'd be up until the early hours of the morning studying films of track and field, trying to figure out the different running techniques and body angles, anything that would help me run faster. In a recent interview, Isles revealed more details about his troubled childhood and his hardships in the US foster care system, until he and his twin sister Cambra were adopted at the age of seven.

“Growing up my lifestyle was all set up for me to fail. I grew up in foster care and ran away from homes and struggled at school, I couldn't read at an early age and I used to fight with other kids just to survive and to protect my twin sister and me,” he said.

“When I was growing up I knew I had a gift, which was just running fast, and I did everything I could to study it and understand it and to develop it… I just wanted to be successful,” said Isles.

Made this video a week ago, before @WilliamClaye knew LJ was not counting due to wind. Congrats on winning triple!! pic.twitter.com/W7XwkDPRAP

— ilana taub (@ilanared) July 10, 2016

“All my crying, all my suffering, being broke and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ... I even had to eat dog food when I was younger, that's what drives me on,” he revealed.

“That and all the negative stuff people used to say about me. When I wake up at 5 o'clock every morning I look at the poster on my wall which has all the comments from the people who ever doubted me written on it.”

Isles' big break came when top US sprinter Mike Rodgers responded to a private message on Facebook. “He said I wouldn't get any faster if I stayed in Ohio so I packed up and moved to Austin, Texas to train with him.

“Suddenly I was training with the dude I'd studied at college, and it gave me hope. A couple of weeks later I was running on ESPN.”

Isles' aim was to make it to the Olympics on a track and field ticket, but he narrowly missed out on a spot in Team USA for London 2012.

His ambitions took a different direction when he discovered rugby.

“When I first saw rugby, I saw past what the eye could see. I thought to myself, what if I became America's fastest rugby player, what if I became the world's fastest rugby player, what if I made the Olympics and became known to people around the world?”

Isles used to study YouTube videos of rugby, to help him better understand the game, but with a highlights reel clocking up over seven million views, Isles has achieved YouTube notoriety of his own.

USA Sevens teammate Perry 'Speed Stick' Baker is coming up fast on the rails in the publicity stakes, though, and both players are set to light up Rio 2016 with their blistering pace.

African News Agency

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