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 The Grenadian 22-year-old puts his beliefs into action by never
shying away from battle with his main rival for one-lap supremacy,
American world champion LaShawn Merritt.
On Sunday, the pair will meet for the 14th time over the distance at
the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Shanghai, with James adamant that
building up such rivalries is key for a sport whose popularity has
taken such a hit from doping scandals and ineffective promotion.
The issue has been highlighted again with the likelihood that Justin
Gatlin, currently the world number one sprinter, and Usain Bolt, the
great Olympic and world champion, are unlikely to race all season
until the world championships in Beijing in August.
"Some athletes have different circumstances and their own reasons
why they don't compete in certain meetings and that's up to them,
but I think head-to-head rivalries bring a lot more excitement to
the sport," James told Reuters on Friday.
"For me, when I compete, I try to put on a good performance for the
fans, just make it exciting and not focus on whether I’m going to
win or lose. Once you do that, everyone wins because the sport
wins."
Having beaten Merritt eight times and lost five, he added: "We just
want to compete. He (Merritt) says it and I say it. We just want to
make it exciting for the fans and once we do that, everything's all
right."
Organizers of the Diamond League, the sport’s major season-long
showpiece, have taken on board this need to promote individual
rivalries.
They opened up in Doha on Friday with a series of spectacular
competitions, including the best triple jump duel in history between
Cuba's victorious Pedro Pablo Pichardo (18.06 meters) and American
Christian Taylor (18.04m).
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Shanghai hopes to follow suit on Sunday, with excellent
head-to-heads between the world's two top high jumpers, Bohdan
Bondarenko and Mutaz Essa Barshim, who have Javier Sotomayor’s world
record as a target this summer, and a long jump featuring Olympic
champion Greg Rutherford, world champion Aleksandr Menkov and world
number one Jeff Henderson.
With other major attractions including a sprint hurdles showdown
between Olympic champion Aries Merritt and world champion David
Oliver on the program, James believes athletics still has the sort
of cast lists to ensure a revival for a wounded sport.
"There's a lot of great athletes out there and events like mine,
like the men's high jump and both men and women's hurdles that are
really competitive," said James.
"I think somewhere, something has gone wrong in the marketing of the
sport but if the right people are in the right positions, I still
think the sky's the limit for track and field."
(Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
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