BYDGOSZCZ, Poland — As the saying goes, “You can take a Jamaican out of Jamaica, but you can never take Jamaica out of a Jamaican.” Austin Hamilton, who competes for Sweden, is the embodiment of this saying.

The 19-year-old, who was born in Clarendon before moving to Sweden with his mother Latoya just before he was 11 in 2009, is one of several Jamaicans who are competing for the European country. But unlike most of the others, he maintains strong links to the country of his birth.

Sweden could field an all-Jamaica 4x100m team. Odain Rose, who ran the 60m at the IAAF World Indoors, Benjamin Olsen and Andrew Hammond are all sprinters born in Jamaica before moving to Sweden at a young age.

Hamilton, who speaks with a strong Jamaican accent, ran a season’s best 10.46 seconds (0.4m/s) to finish second in his first-round heat in the 100m at the IAAF World Under-20 Championships at Zawiszaw stadium in Bydgoszcz, Poland, last week.

He was then fifth in the semi-finals in 10.47 seconds (-0.6m/s) behind Jamaica’s Raheem Chambers who was third.

This was Hamilton’s second time at the Under-20 Championships, after he ran two years ago in Eugene, Oregon, where he also got to the semi-finals.

“Yes man, me come from Clarendon,” he said as his face lit up when questioned by Jamaica media members in Bydgoszcz.

Hamilton, accompanied by his mother Latoya, said they moved to Portmore where he attended Waterford Primary and did tracks, but not seriously.

“I did some track and field in primary school, but I was not really serious, [I] was there just playing around. I was good at it, but never really took it serious, so the coaches did not want me there wasting their time,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Latoya, who is a business woman in Malmo, Sweden, said she did some track and field while attending May Pen High.

Moving to Sweden has been good for the family she said as “things have been going very well for us”. She also has a five-year-old daughter who was born in Sweden.

Austin Hamilton has established himself as one of the top young Swedish athletes and has been competing at most major meets, including the 2015 European Juniors.

“I am good over here. I can’t complain, I get the chance to compete a lot and I am also at the World Juniors for the second time,” he noted.

He trained in Jamaica for several weeks in between December and January with Michael Clarke’s Akan Track Club in Kingston, and Latoya thinks that while he benefitted from the warm-weather training, he is still trying to combine what he learned then and maybe that is “confusing him”.

Latoya told the Observer she does her best to maintain the Jamaican roots even in the way they communicate.

“Definitely. We keep the accent. I talk patois to him, but English and Swedish to my five-year-old daughter.

“I am really proud and happy for him to see how well he is doing,” she said.