Bolt Out of the Blue...or Should That be Dagger?

by The Watcher

Usain Bolt has broken the 100m world record, shaving two hundredths of a second of the record set by his countryman, Asafa Powell last year. The new mark is 9.72 seconds. It is worth remembering that Stanozolol-addled, yellow-eyed Ben Johnson set the -at the time- jaw-dropping mark of 9.79 at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

I was a huge track and field fan as a youth. I dreamt of emulating Allan Wells and Linford Christie and Michael Johnson and was a student of the lore and history of the sport. I remember gasping in disbelief at the large Quartz timer that showed Michael Johnson had run 19.32 seconds for the 200m. An incredible feat of sheer speed and power. At the halls of residence I stayed in my first few years at university, one of the residents would bait me by arguing that Linford Christie was a steroid user -without doubt! This would always embroil me in a heated debate arguing the toss about natural physical gifts and the number of times Linford was tested in and out of comeptition. As a bodybuilder, my verbal sparring partenr simply and smugly countered that he knew what it took to look like Linford did and that at his age (over 30) his speed feats were very unsual. When Linford tested positive for Nandrolone in 1999, I refused to believe it.

The torrent of drug revelations since of famed sprinters is enough to bring a tear to eye. Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones, Dennis Mitchell, that dodge Greek 200m guy who denied Darren Campbell an Olympic Gold medal. There is even now a whiff around Maurice Greene -courtesy of Trevor Graham being his coach. This means that since 1980 only three 100m winners have not been tainted by any drugs controversies: Allan Wells (PB: 10.11), Carl Lewis (PB: 9.86) and Donovan Bailey (PB: 9.84). What to do, what to do? We can only hope that Powell and Bolt are clean and very hard working atheletes.

The 100m feels a lot like the men's heavyweight boxing division. The public are jaded and uncaring at the current spectacle of what was and should be the blue-riband event of their sport -the real gladiators. Is the disdain and far-reaching consequences of cheating now enough of a deterrent to the track stars and potential stars of tomorrow?