HOPKINS, Minn. — He’s been called “Joe-Sain Fahn-Bolt,” and even the “Fahn-Bullet.”
Out of all the nicknames for Hopkins sprinter Joe Fahnbulleh though, there’s one that seems to sum him best.
“I started calling him Joe the Show,” Hopkins track and field coach Nick Lovas said. “At meets, you would see the competition, the spectators, they would stop when it was the 200 or the 100 because they might witness a show.”
It’s been a record-breaking show this season for the Royals star senior. Joe now holds the state’s all-time best marks in the 4x100 meters, the 4x200 meters, the 200 meters and the 100 meters where “Joe the Show” clocked an insane time of 10.23.
“Every year, I would look at that record board and say, ‘I want my name to be up there,’” Fahnbulleh said. “I want my name to be in history forever.”
Joe’s name will forever be remembered as one of the state’s all-time best sprinters (if not the best). For the future Florida Gator though, it was helping Hopkins snap Wayzata’s streak of six straight True Team titles that truly means the most.
“It meant the world to me,” Fahnbulleh said. “It also means the world to the team because the whole team made the effort to win the title.”
But when it comes to the title of fastest high school sprinter in the country, “Joe the Show” has his sights set on Texas teen Matthew Bolling. “White Lightning,” as Bolling was dubbed, went viral for breaking the national 100-meter record, something Joe still has two meets left to change.
“(If we raced) it would be neck and neck,” Fahnbulleh said. “On a good day, I don’t know what might happen. I want to race him though.”