DEXTER Lee will be aiming to become the first Jamaican male to win the 100 and 200 metres sprint double at this summer’s 13th IAAF World Junior Championships between July 20 and 25 in Moncton, Canada.

The 19-year-old former Herbert Morrison standout, who is now conditioned by Atlanta-based coach Anthony Carpenter, will be seeking to emulate training partner Veronica Campbell-Brown, who won the sprint double in Santiago de Chile in 2000.

“As you know, he’s the defending champion in the 100m and so certainly the goal is to defend his title there and he has demonstrated in training that he has the capabilities of also excelling at the 200m, so we’re going to take a shot at both the 100m and the 200m at Worlds,” coach Carpenter told the Observer in an exclusive interview on Saturday.

Lee is the reigning World Youth (10.51secs) and World Junior (10.40secs) 100m champion from Ostrava 2007 and Bydgoszcz 2008, respectively.

“I feel like he’s adapted extremely well (to the professional environment) and, so I think that is a huge upside,” added coach Carpenter, who’s been operating a Youth Club since 2001.

World 100m and 200m record-holder Usain Bolt is the only Jamaican male to have won the 200m gold medal in the history of the WJC with 20.61secs in Kingston 2002.

The coach believes that Lee, who clocked 6.66secs in the 60m indoors this season, is capable of producing top-class times in the both the 100m and 200 later this season.

“(His agent) Claude Bryan, and anyone else who knows me well, will tell you I’m not going to predict times, but I will basically say that Lee is a world-class performer and I expect to see world-class times from him,” said Carpenter, noting that Lee’s work ethic has been tremendous.

“A lot of improvement that he’s realised is as a result of just his overall strength and conditioning, flexibility and training at the professional level, so he has adapted with an adjustment period,” he said.

“I think he’s come through the adjustment period fairly well and fairly quickly… in all honesty, faster than I expected, and that’s one of the reasons that he ended up doing some indoor competitions. I think he was pretty pleased with his indoor season and it has kind of encouraged him to work a little bit harder,” Carpenter noted.

Bryan, who negotiated a sponsorship deal with sportswear manufacturer Reebok on Lee’s behalf last year, is also impressed with the young sprinter’s development in the short period.

“Much better than one could have anticipated for someone entering a new environment. He quickly got over the culture shock and acclimatised well into the new culture,” Bryan said.