ATHLETICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: IAN O'RIORDANsets the stage for the most anticipated showdown in athletics as the top rivals go head-to-head for the first time with both men in top form
HE’S THE man they hailed as the saviour of world sprinting. A rare talent. A class athlete. He’s come to Berlin with the fastest time in the world this year over both 100 and 200 metres, and intent on defending both the World Championship titles he won two years ago. Convincingly. His name, of course, is Tyson Gay.
If these were any other World Championships then Gay would be the headline act. Instead, he’ll play support to the man they hailed as the saviour of track and field. A freak talent. A class apart. He’s come to Berlin as world record holder over both 100 and 200 metres, and is expected to win both those World Championship titles. Comfortably. His name, of course, is Usain Bolt.
Athletics has always had a strange way of sustaining itself. There have been several periods where the sport has flirted with disaster, none more ominously than 21 years ago, when Ben Johnson’s one extra shot of stanozolol threatened to suspend forever the sense of belief in 100 metre sprinting. The period since has done little to restore that belief, as one sprint idol after another was proven to be pharmaceutically enhanced: Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin, Tim Montgomery, Dwain Chambers, et al.
Suddenly, and bizarrely, the one thing driving the sport is sprinting. It’s still difficult to be entirely convinced about the cleanliness of the speed merchants, but there’s no denying they’re what most people in Berlin have come to see.
The Ethiopians and Kenyans continue to do great things in distance running, but even true athletics enthusiasts sometimes have a hard time telling them apart. In a cruel but usual way, they’ve become too dominant for their own good – not that Kenenisa Bekele is losing any sleep over such comments.
What Bolt did in Beijing this time last year seems less to occupy a turning point in the sport than to be that turning point. It wasn’t just his performance. Bolt was a performer. Every sport needs a hero in the pop charts, and an athlete of Bolt’s unmistakable appeal couldn’t have come along at a more crucial time.
When he ran his 9.69 seconds to win the Olympic 100 metres, still only 21, Bolt quite possibly delivered the greatest track and field performance of all time. Unbelievable, in the original sense of the word.
Inevitably, there are some people who will never believe in him. Last month’s news out of Jamaica, that five of their sprinters – including Bolt’s training partner Yohan Blake – revealed “adverse analytical findings” after doping tests at the national championships in June, was another reminder sprinting is still a treacherous game.
That all five athletes were this week cleared either gives more reassurance about Bolt’s legitimacy or raises more questions about the whole testing process.
Either way, as great and as exciting as Bolt is, only one thing could take his appeal to the next level: a rival.
Every sporting great has one. And if Bolt is to extend his world record into even more extraordinary territory, then it can only help if he’s pushed along the way. The sprint rivalry that is set to unfold in Berlin over the coming days promises to do exactly that.
It’s rare enough for two exceptional athletes to exhibit their rivalry when at the same peak level of fitness, but again Berlin promises. While Gay dominated in 2007, Bolt was learning his trade. While Bolt mastered 2008, Gay was carrying a hamstring injury – and exited in the semi-finals in Beijing. This summer, in the spirit of any great rivalry, they’ve avoided each other until the races of truth – starting with tomorrow’s 100 metres final.
“Is that what they’re saying?” Bolt asked British journalists last month, when some of them suggested he was avoiding racing Gay at the London Grand Prix.
“That’s definitely not true. I’ve never been scared of anybody in my life, and I’ve never backed down from any challenge out in front of me. Rivalries are always good, and I always look forward to competing against Tyson. It excites me to know there’s someone out there who is going to challenge me. It’s good for the sport.”
Yet not even the big Jamaican can ignore the warning signs sent out by Gay this summer. In one of his first races, in New York at the end of May, Gay ran the 200 metres in a stunning 19.58. Only Bolt’s 19.30 world record from Beijing and Michael Johnson’s former world record of 19.32 have bettered that. Then, in July, he won the 100 metres in Rome in 9.77, equalling his American record. Bolt’s best times this summer are quick – 19.59 and 9.79 – but not yet as quick as Gay.
The rivalry has another dimension in their contrasting personalities. Bolt the extrovert. Gay the introvert. Bolt has turned his pre- and post-race celebrations into his trademark, but it’s not overbearing and certainly not deliberately disrespectful to the opposition.
He’s actually come out this year with a more mature edge, and though still only 22, he is realising the pivotal role he plays.
“I know the impact I have made on the sport,” he said. “I am trying to keep it up, and make it fun for people. It would be a big thing for me to know people say ‘when Usain Bolt came on the scene he turned track and field around to go the right way’.”
When Gay made his breakthrough two years ago, sprinting was definitely at a low point. The truth about Marion Jones added up to one big lie. The revelations of Dwain Chambers made for hideous reading.
The problem, it seemed, wasn’t that the sprinters were getting away with using industrial amounts of steroids, but that they knew they would. The drugs usually work. The testing usually didn’t.
There was something refreshing about Gay. Something more natural. His biceps weren’t bigger than his quads and he actually looked like he was born to run fast. He regularly cited his mother, Daisy Lowe, as his role model, not some former east German doctor. Something about his soft, southern drawl made him more likeable, more believable. Gay was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky.
In his press conference ahead of the London Grand Prix – staged separate to Bolt’s, naturally – Gay referred to his Jamaican rival as “a beast” and “a monster”, but these were words of respect, a mark of his humility.
“He’s having fun and he’s fearless, and that’s a dangerous competitor,” said Gay.
“It’s normally natural for someone to tighten up a little bit, but this guy’s such a beast. I’ve studied some film of him running, and he’s what you’d call a monster. I’m not very sure what he’s going to do.”
At 26, Gay may well be at his career peak, and is unlikely to get a better chance to beat Bolt at a major championship. It’s just he may need a world record to do so.
“You have to run 9.59 to beat him. That’s how I look at it. But I have the mechanics. I have the coaching. It’s all there. It will be some of the best sprinting ever.”
Bolt, surprisingly, seems more worried about the 200 metres – even though he had over half-a-second to spare on the silver medal in Beijing. Part of the problem there goes back to April, when he flipped his BMW on the main highway into Kingston.
With typical coolness, Bolt’s only injury resulted from stepping on thorns while gracefully exiting the wreckage – but he reckoned that set him back a month, as he couldn’t handle running the bends on the track for a month.
Just over two weeks later, however, Bolt showed up for a circus event on Manchester’s main street, where they laid down a 150-metre track, and despite declaring himself “only 70 per cent fit”, ran the first 100 metres in 9.90 seconds, while the second 100 metres, from 50 to 150 metres, was clocked in an astonishing 8.72 seconds. You do the sums, and when Bolt says he can run 9.5 for the 100 metres in Berlin then perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised when he does.
After all, it’s rare for the support to upstage the headline act.
No matter what business it is.
Hail to the saviours of track and field.
TYSON GAY: USA
Age: 26
Height: 5ft 11in
Weight: 165lb
100-metre best: 9.77
200-metre best: 19.58
Nickname: Tyson “Typhoon” Gay
USAIN BOLT: Jamaica
Age: 22
Height: 6ft 5in
Weight: 195lb
100-metre best: 9.69 (WR)
200-metre best: 19.30 (WR)
Nickname: Usain "Lightning" Bolt
On TV
Saturday
BBC2: 10.00-12.30; 16.45-20.45
EuroSport: 9.00-13.30; 17.00-20.30
Sunday
BBC2: 9.00-12.00; 17.00-21.00
EuroSport: 9.00-13.30; 17.00-20.45
