Saturday, August 29, 2015

The saviour of athletics

Can two men save a sport? I am referring to the sport of athletics, it took a big step forward this week as a result of a boardroom vote and a performance on the track.
Just ahead of the start of the World Championships Lord Sebastian Coe was voted in as the new IAAF president. This is naturally a positive move for Great Britain and the sport as a whole, which seems to have been plagued by doping scandals. There have been numerous positive results cropping up as well as questions raised due to leaked blood data in recent weeks.
An old story that requires no interpretation of the facts is that of Justin Gatlin, the sprinter has already served two separate drugs bans. Until the all-important World Championship race he had remained unbeaten this season and it seemed there was only one man who could stop him – Usain Bolt. Bolt has not been in perfect form for the past two seasons and, if I were a betting girl, I would have felt uncomfortable parting with much at the bookies for a Jamaican victory. In the end the finish could not have been any closer with just one hundredth of a second separating the gold and silver medal, the clean athlete and the cheat, Jamaica and USA. Thankfully it was another victory for the six-time Olympic Champion and you could feel the world of athletics breathe a sigh of relief. The slow motion replay confirmed the crowd’s favourite had won. The question now is - can Bolt produce another winning performance when it really counts next summer in Rio?
Following on from my previous column this has been another week packed with fantastic sport. I was fortunate enough to commentate on the Modern Pentathlon European Championships in Bath. It was a slightly disappointing display by our athletes although two Olympic qualification slots and a victory for the women’s team were the silver lining at the end of a tough season.