Athletics legend Usain Bolt could only finish third in his final individual race as Justin Gatlin won the 100m men’s final at the IAAF World Championship in London on Saturday.
Gatlin won in a time of 9.92 secs, with his fellow American Christian Coleman second in 9.94secs and Bolt third (9.95secs). Frankly, it was an awful result for track and field, where a culture of forgiveness allowed Gatlin to return to professional sprinting after offences in 2001 and 2006 - and finally overcome his longstanding inability to deal with Bolt, who called the victor “a good person.”
There was no animosity down there on the track, but a Gatlin win, at 35, was an embarrassment to athletics, where there was a rash of drugs scandals after the 2012 London Olympics in this very stadium. Gatlin is by no means the only top athlete who has been given a second or third chance after pharmaceutical cheating, but his transgressions stand out in sprinting, which has led the way in conning the public.
Gatlin claimed not to be bothered by the boos of the London crowd. "I tuned it out through the rounds and stayed the course,” he said. “I did what I had to do. The people who love me are here cheering for me and cheering at home.
“I’ve had many victories and many defeats down the years. It’s an amazing occasion. We’re rivals on the track but in the warm-down area we joke and have a good time. The first thing he [Bolt] did was congratulate me and say that I didn't deserve the boos. He’s an inspiration."
As you read this, you are already in the post-Bolt era, with only a 4 x 100m relay to come, which appeared in his schedule as a kind of insurance policy against defeat in the 100m. But this Saturday night shocker was his real departure from the lone-wolf world of sprinting, where he became the most globally recognised sportsman since Muhammad Ali, with a greater reach than a Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan.
In total, Bolt’s work in 100m and 200m World and Olympic finals since 2008 has consumed less than four minutes of the planet’s time. His brilliance has been meted out in 10secs and 20secs chunks, with a false start in 2011 in South Korea the only blemish. But in those bursts, spread across nine years, he has taken up permanent residence in the human imagination, as the embodiment of irresistible speed, packed into an endearing personality. His exuberance, and track devouring stride, have the been the biggest staging posts in world sport for almost a decade.
