It’s been a busy summer to say the least for Illini track and field athlete Raymond Martin.

The 19-year-old, who was training twice a day in Champaign the entire summer, headed to Los Angeles for the ESPYS on July 17th, only to take a flight immediately after the event to compete at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France from July 19-28. In Lyon, Martin had to prepare to race in five events – the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m – all while dealing with the ill effects of frequent flying.

“It was very tough to have to compete the day after I landed in France,” Martin said. “I had a bit of jet lag that followed me to my competition, but I knew this would happen coming in, so I just put my head down and race as hard as I could.”

That’s exactly what Martin did, winning every event offered in his T52 competition at the World Championships and becoming the first male athlete to win five gold medals in one para-athletics event. This comes only ten months after Martin swept all the T52 races at the 2012 Paralympic Games.

“The World Championships are very important to me,” Martin said. “It’s a great way to keep track of your progression in the sport between the Games. World Championships are held every two years, sandwiching the Games. Having the opportunity to call myself a World Champion is such a great feeling.”

Martin’s first race at the Championships was in the 1500m, the only event he didn’t compete in at the Paralympics.

“The 1500m was a very difficult race,” Martin said. “It wasn’t offered in London, and I’ve only done the race three times prior to the World Championships. I knew the field was very competitive, with Thomas Geierspichler of Austria being a multiple World Championship and Paralympic Games medalist, and Steven Toyoji of the USA being very strong in the distance races.”

Despite being inexperienced in the event, Martin had a strategy capture gold in the 1500m.

“The plan was for me to pull the draft on the first lap, Toyoji to pull the second lap, Geierspichler to pull the third and for all the bets to come off on the final lap,” Martin said. “I pulled a hard lap and so did Toyoji, but the pack got scrambled and Toyoji and I ended up doing the majority of the work in this race.”

Martin needed the help of a teammate to come out on top during the final lap.

“At the bell lap, I was actually boxed into lane one. This means that there was someone in front of me, and another racer next to me, so I was physically boxed in,” Martin said. “Thankfully, my U.S. teammate Toyoji was the one in front of me and I shouted to him that I was boxed in. He moved out to lane two to give me a path out of the box. I had enough energy left in the tank to sprint the last 400 meters and came out with a tough win over Geierspichler and Toyoji who took the silver and bronze.”

Martin finished with a time of 3:51.28, narrowly edging out Geierspichler’s 3:51.80. Martin followed up his 1500m performance with back-to-back golds in the 800m and 200m races. He also finished first in the 100m and 400m races.

“I took gold in the 800m and 200m in London, so I had a bit of confidence heading into these two races,” Martin said. “Thanks to our phenomenal coach at the U of I, Adam Bleakney, I was well prepared to sprint an 800m and do well in my world record event, the 200m.”

Fellow Illini Tatyana McFadden was the only athlete to win more gold medals than Martin at the World Championships as she swept all six of her races, becoming the first athlete to do so at the Championships.

Now that the Championships are over Martin can finally rest, but not for long.

“I am really looking forward to some time off,” Martin said. “I have had a very long season. After some time off, I will be doing some longer aerobic training in preparation for the Chicago Marathon this October.”

Michael can be reached at [email protected].