Usain Bolt takes on twice-banned Justin Gatlin in world 100m clash

Some people are billing it as the race between good and evil. Others as the hero against the villain. Or else simply the showdown between the clean and the dirty, the truth and the lies. For a race of just 100 metres, taking just over 40 strides and lasting just under 10 seconds, could there be any more riding on it?

It certainly won’t be any ordinary sprint. Because when the starting pistol is fired for the men’s 100m final in Beijing tomorrow, the entire athletics world – not just those sitting inside the Bird’s Nest stadium – will hold its breath. Then, depending on who wins, there should either be an enormous sigh of right-minded relief, or else gasps of loathsome horror. Right?

Because in one lane (assuming he makes that final) will be Usain Bolt, the 29- year-old Jamaican, still the world record holder, and still popularly described as the undisputed fastest man in history; in another lane (assuming he also makes that final) will be Justin Gatlin, the 33-year-old American – the fastest man for the last two years, and nearly 10 years on from committing a second doping offence – infamously getting faster all the time.

Even in an event already flush with controversial turning points, it may mark another moment of irreversible damage to the credibility of athletics – if Gatlin wins. Indeed coming as it does against the backdrop of some seriously widespread, if not somewhat sensational, doping allegations within athletics, it could also be described as the race to save the sport – a sort of salvation from the needle and the damage done.

Reprise in 200m

There will actually be a reprise later in the week, too, when Bolt and Gatlin also go head-to-head over the 200m. Only the truth and lies may not be as straightforwardly separated as some people are billing it, and not just when it comes to Gatlin.

He’s been widely portrayed as public enemy number one – inevitably and rightly so, given he also appears happy to play up that role. Gatlin continues to display little remorse for his doping offences and even if there is the reasonable possibility he’s currently running clean, there is some evidence to suggest he may still be benefiting from his dirty past.

Bolt, meanwhile, is being portrayed as the man to put that enemy back in his rightful place. He's in Beijing looking to win his ninth World Championship gold medal, and with that restore some faith in the sport brought to its knees in recent weeks, and now more than ever in need of a hero.

On Thursday, Bolt was rolled out before a mass media audience at Beijing’s luxury NUO Hotel, courtesy of his sponsors, Puma. After a few brief niceties, Bolt was questioned about the merits of Gatlin’s participation.

“The rules are there and the rules are there for a reason,” he said. “If the rules say [Gatlin] can get banned and he can get back in the sport, I can’t really do anything about it. That’s not my call.

“He’s still going to line up and I still have to compete against him. People say I need to win for my sport. There are a lot of other athletes out here running clean and that have run clean throughout their career. It’s not only on me because I can’t do it by myself. It’s the responsibility of all the athletes to help to save the sport, to show the sport can go forwards.”

Bolt, in other words, is not entirely comfortable playing up the role of hero. There is also that still worrying backdrop of Jamaica’s own anti-doping record, particularly the gaping absence of out-of-competition testing in the five months prior to the London Olympics, which resulted in the resignation of their anti-doping chief.

Jamaican sprinters won eight of the 12 individual sprint medals available in London, and the following year, five of their top sprinters tested positive – including former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell and double Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown.

Anyway, Bolt knows he'll need to be very close to his very best to beat Gatlin. There were some doubts about whether he'd be here at all, when a back injury forced him to miss several Diamond League appearances, although he very quickly recovered to run 9.87 – twice – at the wet and windy London Anniversary Games.

Shaky start

Whatever about his shaky start to the season, there’s no denying Bolt’s championship credentials: with the obvious exception of the 2011 World Championships in Daegu (where he false-started in the 100m), he’s consistently delivered his season’s best in the final (including the Beijing Olympics and 2009 World Championships in Berlin, where he also set world records).

Two years ago, in Moscow, Bolt improved his season’s best by .08 of a second, running 9.77 to win the gold medal. Behind him – .08 of a second behind, to be exact – was Gatlin, who ran 9.85.

Then, last summer, in the absence of the injured Bolt, Gatlin went unbeaten – running seven of the 10 fastest times over 100m, including a best of 9.77, equalling his previous best from 2006, which also equalled the then world. This summer, he’s come out and run faster again, running 9.74 for the 100m in Doha (making him the fifth-fastest man in history), and 19.57 for the 200m (in Eugene). He’s unbeaten in 27 races, with a consistency that must worry Bolt, even if Bolt has beaten him in six of their last seven meetings .

Unlike Bolt, however, Gatlin has avoided any mass media audience in Beijing. In an interview with the US media, Gatlin certainly wasn’t being drawn into the debate between good [Bolt] and evil [him]: “I really don’t care what they think. I am just a runner like he is a runner. We are just runners – there is no good runner or bad runner. No one is trying to take over the world. No one is trying to blow up the world.”

Not many people are giving Gatlin the benefit of any doubt, even if there is some doubt over the exact nature of his two doping convictions. In 2001, aged only 19 and competing at the US junior nationals, he tested positive for trace amounts of amphetamine, which was attributed to a prescription medication Adderall that Gatlin had been taking since he was nine years- old for attention deficit disorder. The IAAF accepted his inadvertent violation, and Gatlin served a provisional suspension of just under a year.

Five years later – after winning six consecutive American collegiate sprint titles, and the 2004 Olympic sprint double – Gatlin tested positive for testosterone, at the 2006 Kansas Relays. Actually, that initial test came back negative, only for a carbon isotope ratio retest – requested by US anti-doping agency (Usada) – to confirm the presence of “exogenous testosterone”, ie from a source outside the body.

Sabotage claim

It was Gatlin's coach at the time, Trevor Graham, who claimed sabotage, that their physio had rubbed a testosterone cream into Gatlin's legs without either of them knowing. Gatlin, in sworn testimony, simply claimed he had never knowingly consumed testosterone. Graham was later banned for life for lying to federal agents, while Usada gave Gatlin a reduced ban of eight years, instead of life, for his co-operation. The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne cut that to four years, on appeal.

Most of this is outlined by US sportswriter Alan Abrahamson, on his website 3 Wire Sports, in an article this week entitled: "Justin Gatlin, and a run for redemption." Abrahamson is one of the few people willing to suggest Sunday's 100m final may not necessarily be the race between good and evil. The problem for athletics is still trying to separate truth from lies. n Men's 100 metres final: Sunday, 2.15pm (Irish time).