Bolt races for historic gold with ‘doper’
Jamaican competes with twice-banned US rival as critics question fairness of contest after positive tests
HE is by far the biggest star of Rio 2016, but popularity will not be the only reason the athletics world will be hoping Usain Bolt can make history with another 100m gold medal tomorrow. The Jamaican will be up against American Justin Gatlin, 34, who has twice been banned for doping offences.
Bolt eased through the first round yesterday, winning his heat in 10.07 secs, marginally slower than Gatlin.
At a time when athletics is struggling for credibility as a “clean” sport, a victory for Gatlin – the fastest man in the world this year – would raise inevitable questions about whether he should even have been in the race at all.
Lord Coe, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and chairman of the British Olympic Association, has said he would feel “queasy” if Gatlin beat Bolt.
Lord Coe, himself a double Olympic gold medallist, is an advocate of lifetime bans for serious doping offences. In 2001, Gatlin was suspended for two years, reduced to one year on appeal, after testing positive for a banned amphetamine that he said was contained in medication he was taking for atten- tion deficit disorder.
He went on to win 100m gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, before Bolt’s dominance of the sport began. Then, in 2006, Gatlin was given an eight-year ban after testing positive for testosterone. His suspension was halved after he agreed to co-operate with with the US Anti-Doping Agency.
Lord Coe said in a recent interview: “I’m hardly going to sit here, given everything I’ve said, and say that I’m anything other than queasy at the thought of athletes that have served bans for serious infringements going on to win championships.”
He is not alone. When Bolt beat Gatlin by one one-hundredth of a second at last year’s world championships in Beijing, ending a 28-race unbeaten run for Gatlin, Steve Cram, the former world 1,500m champion, suggested he had “saved his sport”.
New scientific research has suggested the effects of doping can last for years, which will only serve to increase Gatlin’s role as the “baddie” of the Games’ blue-riband event.
University of Oslo scientists say muscles can retain the advantages given by anabolic steroids for decades. One even suggested banned substances could give lifelong advantages.
Gatlin has run the fastest ever times for the 100m and 200m by a man in his thirties.
Dai Greene, GB’s former 400m hurdles world champion, said Gatlin was “over the hill as far as sprinting is concerned – he should never be running these times.
“You have to look at his past, and ask how it is still affecting him now, because the average person wouldn’t be able to do that.”
Billions of people are expected to watch on television as Bolt takes on Gatlin in the 100m final at 2.26am tomorrow (UK time), assuming both of them qualify.
Bolt, 29, hopes to complete an unprecedented “triple triple” at Rio by winning gold in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay, as he did at London 2012 and Beijing 2008.
The 6ft 5in champion holds the world record in all three events. Gatlin, however, posted a 100m time of 9.80 secs earlier this year, the fastest of 2016.