|
 The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) hit
back robustly at charges it failed to act on hundreds of suspicious
tests after data from thousands of blood samples were leaked to
media organizations.
Calling the allegations "sensationalist and confusing", the IAAF
defended its drugs testing procedures and said it was cooperating
with the independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in an
investigation.
What cannot be disputed, however, is that Gatlin is a proven drugs
cheat with two positive tests for banned substances that would have
resulted in a life ban had he not cooperated with the authorities.
Bolt, on the other hand, is the most bankable track and field
athlete of the modern era.
His clean doping record is as much a part of his huge popularity as
his undoubted charisma and dominance of men's sprinting for much of
the last seven years.
The prospect, therefore, of Gatlin emerging as champion of the blue
riband sprint on the evening of Aug. 23 in Beijing could deal
another hammer blow to the credibility of the sport.
"You are talking about the most significant, the best loved, best
known, most iconic track and field athlete out there, Usain Bolt,"
Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing expert at Baker Street Advertising
in San Francisco, told Reuters.
"So if he got beat by somebody who has had drug issues in the past
it wouldn't help the sport."
Unfortunately for the IAAF, that is a scenario which looks to have
every chance of panning out.
While world record holder Bolt has struggled to hit his straps this
season, the 33-year-old Gatlin is in the form of his life and
unbeaten over 100 and 200m since 2013.
"The average person, when they look at his age and see the fact he
has been suspended in the past, I think a lot of people are just
going to look at it and say, 'well he found a way around the
testing,'" said George Belch, a sports marketing professor at San
Diego State University.
"Given his age, people are going to have a difficult time accepting
the fact that he could be running faster than ever."Even if Gatlin
fails to beat Bolt, his compatriot Tyson Gay or Jamaican Asafa
Powell might. Both have served doping bans in the last two years.
SPORTING STRATOSPHERE
Bolt has always prided himself on being a "big meeting" runner,
however, and could yet rediscover the form that sent him rocketing
into the sporting stratosphere on two sultry evenings at the same
Bird's Nest stadium in 2008.
[to top of second column] |
Since he won both the 100 and 200m in world record times at the
Beijing Olympics, only a false start in the 100 at the 2011 world
championships in Daegu prevented Bolt from sweeping the sprint
titles at all four major global meetings.
The 28-year-old Jamaican is by far the best-known of the 2,000
athletes expected to compete over the nine days of the championships
from Aug. 22-30.
That number is unlikely to drop much despite the IAAF initiating
disciplinary action against 28 athletes on Tuesday after re-testing
samples from the 2005 and 2007 world championships with new
technology.
Most of those responsible for the 32 adverse results have retired or
are already serving bans, the IAAF said.
The cloud of doping is sure to hang as heavily as the Beijing smog
over the last days of Lamine Diack's 16-year reign as IAAF
president, which will come to an end next Wednesday.
Sebastian Coe and Sergey Bubka, two great athletes and Olympians,
will contest the election to succeed the Senegalese and take on the
task of reviving their sport.
To say that whoever wins will face a challenge tougher than anything
they encountered in their much-decorated careers would be something
of an understatement.
"Obviously track and field is not a top-of-line sport except during
Olympic years," Dorfman added.
"So any sort of scandal is going to hurt the event and is going to
hurt it more just because legitimacy is such an issue.
"It's similar to the Tour de France. You talk about cycling and what
scandal has done to that sport and how it is just not taken a
seriously as it used to be. I would put it in that same category."
(Additional reporting by Gene Cherry, editing by Peter Rutherford)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
