BOLT MISSION
Gatlin victory in Beijing next week would tarnish the spectacle of athletics
Why Usain must beat drugs cheat Gatlin to save athletics
ON Sunday night the best 100m sprinters in the world will settle down on to their blocks in the iconic Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, the scene of much heroics in the 2008 Olympics.
And yet, as the sport’s showcase event gets underway, the question reverberating in the minds of any thoughtful observers will be: ‘Just how many of these champions are actually on drugs?’
In the coming days the athletics authority, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), will take out swathes of medallists and finalists from the 2005 world championships in Helsinki and few from the 2007 world championships in Osaka.
Ten years on, they can now reveal, thanks to more advanced testing techniques and with the help of the blood tests which were leaked to the German TV company ARD, that significant numbers of medallists were drug cheats.
Usain Bolt, the sport’s true global star, could be beaten at a major championships for the first time in eight years — by Justin Gatlin, a man who has served two doping bans yet believes he has no cross to bear. Sebastian Coe feels nauseous at the very thought.
How damaging would Gatlin beating Bolt be for the sport? And can we enjoy the 100m for the spectacle it promises to be without worrying about the wider implications of the result?
Jessica Ennis-Hill, herself denied medals at a world championships by a woman who failed a drugs test, is fearful of what a Gatlin victory could mean.
‘I hope it won’t damage the sport,’ she said. ‘We have an amazing sport with some really talented athletes who have probably trained hard and done it properly. It’s difficult. I would hope that Usain would come out on top next week.
‘I think if you fail a drug test and are caught cheating and you have won medals, you should absolutely have your medals taken off you.
‘There is the idea that everyone deserves a second chance but it’s hard because we don’t know the benefits you get from taking drugs and cheating and how long that stays in your system and the effect it has in future years.
‘It’s really difficult. For me having been to championships where you know deep down people are not doing things the right way, it’s extremely frustrating to then see those athletes come back and be successful again.’
Gatlin was a teenage phenomenon before testing positive in 2002 for amphetamines, which he attributed to taking medication for 10 years to treat attention deficit disorder. Then in 2006, he was banned for four years after the anabolic steroid testosterone was found in his system — he claimed via a cream rubbed into his buttocks by a vengeful massage therapist.
For good reason, there are many who think he should not be anywhere near athletics, let alone with opportunity to usurp the sport’s biggest star on its grandest stage. But that is up to the IAAF, the governing body of which Coe could soon be president if he wins this week’s election.
The IAAF has repeatedly rejected calls for lifetime bans for drugs cheats. Darren Campbell, Britain’s Olympic gold-medal winning sprinter, disagrees. ‘You shouldn’t be allowed in our sport to make the same mistake twice,’ he said. ‘The athletes should have to sign up to a mandate which says, if they get caught for drugs, they waive any chance to come back to the sport. Clean athletes would do that.’
However, as the rules stand, Gatlin has every right to be there and his performances this season certainly justify his place on Team USA. Back in May, the 33-year-old opened up with a personal best 9.74sec 100m and has since gone under 9.8sec four times. Unbeaten since 2013 in 27 races over 100m and 200m, he has been racking up victories on the Diamond League circuit. Meanwhile Bolt has struggled with injury, winning races but not running times which would give Gatlin much concern.
Then at the London Anniversary Games, Bolt breezed to a 9.78sec seasons best i n the semi-final. But still former sprinter Ato Boldon remains unconvinced he can beat Gatlin. ‘Bolt will start as an underdog, make no mistake,’ he said. ‘No matter what you hear about Bolt’s history, he has never had to run against somebody like Gatlin who is starting and finishing as strongly as he is and running 9.7sec.’
A study by the University of Oslo in 2013, albeit on mice and not 14st muscle bound sprinters, found that even a brief intake of anabolic steroids may have long-lasting performance enhancing effects — possibly for decades. So it could be that Gatlin is not doing anything untoward right now yet is still reaping the benefits from past misdemeanours.
Whatever the truth — and probably only a handful of people know — Campbell thinks the sport needs to act quickly for its showpiece race to retain its allure: ‘It’s getting to the point where there will be an Olympic 100m final and the commentator will read out eight names and all will have been banned for drugs, at that point it will be damaged forever.’