Bolt, Gatlin ready for 100m duel
centre stage at the Rio Olympics on Sunday with
Usain Bolt facing another showdown with Justin
Gatlin where the image of athletics will be on the
line.
Twelve months ago, when Bolt vanquished Gatlin in
the World Championship 100m final, many
suggested the Jamaican sprint king had “saved” his
sport from a bruising reputational body blow.
The prospect of 2004 Olympic champion Gatlin —
twice found guilty of doping during his career —
was too much to stomach for many in athletics.
Yet the notion that Bolt’s victory in Beijing had set
track and field on a road to redemption turned out
to be woefully premature.
In the 12 months since, athletics has been left
reeling by a corruption scandal involving top-level
administrators and revelations over Russian doping
that plunged the sport into the worst crisis in its
history.
It means that Sunday’s 100m final at Rio de
Janeiro’s Olympic Stadium, set for 10.25pm local
time (0125 GMT Monday) will inevitably once more
be framed as a battle of “good versus evil” — Bolt
vs Gatlin.
In a global audience of hundreds of millions, many
fans, including International Association of Athletics
Federations chief Sebastian Coe, may be tempted to
watch through their fingers.
Gatlin, 34, wearily rejects a narrative he sees as
unfair, adamant that his story is far more nuanced
than the bald, oft-applied label — “two-time dope
cheat” — implies.
His first doping suspension in 2001 arose from the
use of a drug to treat attention deficit disorder that
he had been prescribed since childhood.
The US panel hearing that case found he “was
certainly not a doper.”
A second positive in 2006 — for excessive levels of
testosterone — was more problematic.
Gatlin blamed the results on sabotage by a therapist
but was banned for eight years, later reduced to
four on appeal.
– Hurt by ‘villain’ tag –
“It’s hurtful, it’s hurtful to be looked at as a villain
because that’s not how I portray myself, that’s not
how my son portrays me or my family,” said Gatlin,
who booked his ticket to Rio with the fastest 100m
time in the world this year last month, 9.80sec.
Gatlin may find it hard to escape the opprobrium,
however, if he defeats Bolt on Sunday to deny a
fairytale swansong for the sport’s greatest
showman.
Bolt is aiming to sign off a majestic Olympic career
by successfully defending his triple crown of 100m,
200m and 4x100m titles for a third straight
Olympics.
The 29-year-old has endured a frustrating season,
repeatedly bothered by a hamstring problem that
has required extensive treatment and forced him to
cut short his appearance at Jamaica’s trials in
Kingston in July.
However he appeared in relaxed mood on Monday
at his first press conference since arriving in Brazil,
shimmying with scantily-clad samba dancers and
wise-cracking with journalists.
Even when asked about his sport’s year of shame,
which culminated with Russia barred from the
Olympics, Bolt was upbeat.
“For me, I think we’re going in the right direction, I
must say,” Bolt said. “We’re weeding out the bad
ones,” he added, stating he was unconcerned by the
prospect of lining up against opponents who are
not clean.
“In life, nothing is guaranteed. But for me going out
there, I never worry about it,” said Bolt, who has a
knack of raising his game when titles are at stake.
“As a young kid, you grow up looking forward to
the big Games,” he said. “Championships are what
matters.
This is what I do, I enjoy doing it.”
The likeliest challenge to Bolt and Gatlin could come
from the next generation of sprinters led by
Trayvon Bromell of the United States and France’s
Jimmy Vicaut.
Bromell, 21, has the world’s second fastest 100m
time this year (9.84) whie Vicaut, 24, has the third
fastest (9.86).
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