As the World Athletics Championships starting pistol fires tomorrow, the eyes of the sporting world will turn to Beijing. With athletics reeling from a spate of doping allegations in recent weeks and months, many fans and most likely the sport’s administrators, including Lord Coe, who was elected President of the IAAF earlier this week, will be looking to the untainted king of the sprints, Usain Bolt, to deliver a positive result and bring back the feel-good factor.
The Jamaican multiple World and Olympic Champion has lit up athletics since first announcing himself to the world with a breath-taking world record performance of 9.69s in the 2008 Olympic 100 Metre Final at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in the Chinese capital. Returning this week to the site of his most iconic victory, Bolt is viewed as the underdog in many quarters and must overcome the challenge of two-time drug cheat Justin Gatlin, who is undefeated in two years and has recorded the four best 100m times of 2015.
Were Bolt to reassert his dominance with victory over the contentious American, it would be considered by many as a victory of ‘good’ over ‘evil’, but, having indicated that the 2017 World Championships in London will be his last major event, the stopwatch will be ticking on one of world sport’s stand-out careers.
This week, Sport Magazine published a superb piece assessing the current state of athletics and, given the way in which Bolt reinvigorated track and field, looking at the future prospects of a sport mired in controversy and staring down the barrel of losing its poster-boy.
As we are all aware, Derek knows a thing or two about athletics and is no stranger to World Championship success, so Sport Magazine turned to him for his opinion on the current turmoil in the sport and what comes after Usain Bolt.
This is an excellent, insightful article and will interest any athletics or sports fan. As you would expect, Derek’s contribution is well thought out and clearly stated.