GOODBYE BOLT... GOOD LUCK ATHLETICS

Foster hails ‘beacon of hope’ Usain and fears for his sport once sprint legend hangs up his spikes

USAIN BOLT has been a “beacon of hope” for athletics and without him the sport faces an uncertain future, says Brendan Foster.

A week today, at the World Championships in London, the self-proclaimed “living legend” runs his final 100 metres race. Seven days later, on the same track in the same Stratford Stadium where he won three of his eight Olympic golds in 2012, he will sign off by bringing the relay baton home for Jamaica. One last time the world will stop and watch in awe an athlete untainted by the sins of his sport. And then he will be gone, leaving track and field with a massive hole to fill. “Athletics will miss Bolt hugely,” said Foster. “It’s been in a bad place for a few years and he’s the guy who’s kept it living. “To have probably the greatest athlete in the history of the sport – one of the greatest athletes of any sport in any lifetime – during one of the worst periods in the history of the sport, has been a godsend.”

Foster is bracing himself for an emotional fortnight.

It is not only Bolt calling it quits in London, Mo Farah runs his final track races there.

And then it is the turn of Big Bren himself to say goodbye.

“Mo and I are the only two guys to have ever held the British records from 1500m to 3000m, two miles, 5000m and 10000m,” said Foster, a Commonwealth and European champion turned ‘Voice of Athletics.’

“When he steps off the stage I step off with him. Of course I will be emotional.”

After more than 30 years spent commentating on every major athletics event he will put down his microphone for the last time.

He is unlikely to sign off with

the words “Good night and good luck” made famous by legendary US broadcaster Ed Murrow. But he might just be thinking it.

For track and field will suddenly find itself without its two biggest stars. And that presents quite a challenge for a sport short of credibility due to its scandal-riddled past.

“It would not be right to say that without Bolt athletics would have died because athletics as a sport will never die,” said Foster. “People will always want to compete in the basic human activity of running.

“But in terms of the credibility of the sport, Bolt has been the beacon of hope and without him, yes, you do worry for its future popularity.”

Foster has done as much as anyone to show athletics in its best light – and, through his brainchild the Great North Run, to get the British public up and running. One of those inspired by his example is four-time Olympic champion Farah and nobody’s achievements have given Foster greater pleasure.

“I maintain that Mo is the greatest athlete Britain’s ever had,” he said. “In my view, the greatest sportsman Britain’s ever had. The state of the sport is such that anyone who’s really successful will have aspersions cast against them.

“But as far as I’m concerned he is an honest bloke who’s worked harder than anybody before.

“To be there commentating on the occasion the two greatest step down, well, I can’t think of a better way to finish.”