ARE champions born or are they made? Is it genes which decide how gifted a sportsperson becomes, or the rigours of extensive training, culture and environment, or just experience? Indeed, what goes into the making of a champion will never be unanimous.

But for Calabar High’s star athlete, Michael O’Hara Jnr, it might very well be in his genes, as his dad, Michael O’Hara Snr and mother Kereen Williams, were no slouches themselves.

His mother had a very useful track and field career which started at Porus High School and ended at the Jamaica Business Institution College where she was champion girl on two occasions.

So where did he get his running from? the Sunday Observer inquired. “From mummy,” said Williams, with a smile. Daddy O’Hara is overseas, so he didn’t get a chance to say whether his son’s potential greatness was acquired from him.

But for now, Williams is taking the credit, although she points out that his father did some running while at Dunoon Technical High School.

“I used to run like the 100m, 200m. I used to do long jump and high jump and 4×100. I started out very young in Manchester and I was one of the students that dominated everything. It is in the genes,” she pointed out.

For those who don’t believe that champions are born, certainly O’Hara’s mom thinks so.

“When he was two or three years old attending Smurf Kindergarden, they decided to put him in a race and I was saying ‘How my God’ he is so young. So they put him in the 50m and he came first with lengths,” she revealed.

That was the beginning of a fantastic track career so far for the 15-year-old Calabar athlete who went on to become champion boy at Half-Way Tree Primary twice, and only recently was named Champion Boy of the prestigious ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships.

His precocious talent was nurtured at Half-Way-Tree Primary by coach Jermaine Jones, who wanted to retire from the sport but was forced to carry on because he was in awe of O’Hara’s talent.

“He attended Half-Way-Tree Primary School where at age seven coach Jones decided to stick with him, saying this little boy can run.

“I said OK. They had a sports day and they put him in the 200m, 100m and the 4×100 and he won all three. He was champion boy that year,” recalled his mother.

“So he was champion boy at Smurf Kindergarden School, Half-Way-Tree Primary School for two years… shortly after Ramone McKenzie left, he took up the banner,” said Williams.

O’Hara is really following in the footsteps of Ramone ‘Batman’ McKenzie, who went on to become a star athlete for Calabar at Champs dominating the 200 and 400 metres.

Young O’Hara, standing at six feet, two inches, was instrumental in Calabar winning Champs, amassing 24 points in his first year in Class Two.

He captured his favourite event, the 110m hurdles from lane eight in 13.9 seconds; turned back the fancied Jamaica College pair of Rohan Walker and Devaughn Jackson in the 200m in 21.36 seconds, and was third in the 100m in 10.7.

He also led his school to victory in the Class Two 4x100m.

With Champs seemingly on the line, young O’Hara was asked by coach Michael Clarke to run a leg on the closing 4x400m Open and that he did. He ran a blinding 47.3secs second leg, giving Calabar a 15-metre lead which they held to the wire to cop off a brilliant championship.

“I feel very thankful for what I have done for my team at Champs this year and I am surprised that I got champion boy this year. I didn’t think I would get it this year, but I saw my effort in going and doing my best paying off and I am thankful for it,” said a humble looking O’Hara.

Calabar amassed 267.5 points, but his 24 individual points were crucial as his school gained their 22nd lien on the Mortimer Geddes trophy.

The fourth former not only makes his mother proud on the track, he is also doing very well in the classrooms to date, something which she is monitoring every minute of the day.

“So far, he balances it okay, but I need to give him special tutoring to be more advanced. Right now, no problem, even the teachers say he is focused. Sometimes I just pop up at school and when he looks up he sees mommy. Then the teacher would say ‘mummy, your boy is doing fine’,” she noted.

Ms Williams, who works at Custom International Industry Liaison department, pointed out that she gives more than she can to assist her son on and off the track.

“I was always there for him. Daddy is not around right now, but he gives his per cent when he is ready. But I give 110 per cent. Michael can always call on mommy. Anything he wants I will always try to get it and let him be satisfied. I am always there with him,” said Williams.

Young O’Hara himself knows the importance of balancing his schoolwork with sports. “It is not really difficult. I schedule my thing and balance it off. Training starts at 2:30 and ends at 6:00 and around nine to 12, I would be studying and although I am very tired at nights, I have to find a way to balance it off,” said O’Hara.

Although he didn’t have a great Carifta Games in Bermuda by his standards, where he failed to win an individual gold, O’Hara was fairly pleased with his performances.

“It was very pleasing for me because the place was very cold and I could not warm properly as the weather was a challenge. But my performance was OK,” he told the Observer, as he relaxed at home.

He did run his personal best in the Under-17 100m, copping silver in 10.68 seconds. A little complacency, said his mother, cost him gold in the 110m hurdles where he finished second to teammate Jaheel Hyde of Wolmer’s Boys, who he has beaten all season. O’Hara, who has a PR of 13.92, ran 13.97 and lost on the line to Hyde, who did 13.96 seconds.

But he came back and won two gold medals in the 4x100m and the recordbreaking 4x400m relay and ended with two gold and two silver medals.

O’Hara, who identifies the 110m hurdles as his favourite event, is targeting the Junior CAC Games at the end of June. “I am looking forward to the CAC Games and hopefully that will carry me to the juniors,” said the young man who idolises Asafa Powell, something which his mother thinks is because of his “soft and laid back” demeanour.

O’Hara certainly isn’t Tom Hanks, who plays the slow-witted character Forrest Gump, who runs and runs while in danger.

O’Hara just loves to run from a tender age revealed his mother. “If I said, Michael go for some water, he would run for it. If I said, Michael do this for me, he would do pure running. So I guess it’s in the genes. Everything I send him for, he just runs for it”.

But if you think that this is it for the family, you have another guess coming. His seven-year-old brother, Mickere, is just as energetic and his mother his predicting that he will be better than his older sibling.

“I think the little one will be faster,” she revealed, noting that several high schools are lining up for his services already.

So based on this, the argument of whether champions are born or made, if young Mickere is anything near his brother Michael’s talent, then it enhances the argument that it is in the genes and indeed champions are born.