Usain Bolt v Justin Gatlin: Rio ready for another instalment in athletics’ greatest rivalry
OLYMPIC great Michael Johnson has a unique take when asked for comment about the ‘rivalry’ between Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin.
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OLYMPIC great Michael Johnson smiles when asked for comment about the rivalry between Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin.
“The first thing that you look at in terms of rivalries is what’s the record?” Johnson explains. “Bolt’s won seven out of eight, that’s not a really good rivalry to be honest.”
The “rivalry” will have one more dance in Rio on Monday morning as Bolt guns for his third consecutive 100m Olympic gold medal.
Once again the match-up is based along the lines of good versus evil.
Bolt is one of the most-loved sportsmen on the planet while Gatlin is a two-time drug cheat who many say epitomises everything that is wrong with track and field at the moment.
And he’s even copping it from his own with American swimmer Lilly King saying she didn’t think the sprinter should be competing because he’d previously failed drug tests.
“At the end of the day, the time has been served. I’ve served that time,” was Gatlin’s response to the latest controversy. “I’ve dealt with that punishment. I’ve moved forward.
“I’ve worked hard, all the way from the bottom when I had nothing. I worked hard to work back to where I’m at now. I don’t understand. The system has worked.
“I think people need to stop looking at trying to be the judge, the jury and executioner and let the system do its job.”
Gatlin, who won the 100m gold medal at the 2004 Olympics, was first banned for using amphetamines, though it was deemed he didn’t use them for doping but to treat attention deficit disorder.
The second came for excessive testosterone in 2006 and resulted in a four-year ban.
But Gatlin returned faster than ever and at the age of 34 holds the two quickest times of the year — he ran 9.80 sec at the US Olympic trials in June — leading into Rio.
Bolt is down in fourth spot with his season’s best, 9.88 sec, in Jamaica in June before a hamstring niggle forced him to the sidelines.
This is exactly the same scenario as last year in the lead-up to the world championships in Beijing.
Bolt was even more banged up there after an injury-riddled year and looked sadly out of touch in the opening round and semi-final.
Gatlin had won 23 consecutive 100m races coming into the final but he choked when it mattered, stumbling on the line as the Jamaican superstar grabbed him to win by .01 sec.
He was then obliterated by Bolt in the 200m with many believing the American had blown his one and only chance of taking down the master again.
The only time Gatlin has tasted success was back in 2013 at the Diamond League meet in Rome where Bolt tripped shortly after the start.
Two months later at the world championships in Moscow, the roles were reversed with Bolt winning in 9.77 sec and Gatlin taking silver in 9.85 sec.
The relationship between the pair has been better than most think with Bolt more outraged at Gatlin’s teammate, Tyson Gay, over his recent drug suspension.
Gatlin says Bolt calls him “old man” and has a dig about his grey hairs which he claims shows wisdom rather than age.
He responds by calling Bolt, who will turn 30 on the night of the closing ceremony, “middle-aged man”.
They have partied socially in the past and even the pair’s mothers have struck up a friendship after meeting in Beijing last year.
Although there has been friction in the lead-up to the Games.
Bolt was less than impressed with Gatlin’s comments about how he was forced to get a medical exemption from the Jamaican trials because of a pulled hamstring.
The American also claimed the fastest man in the world “doesn’t want to race me across the world all the time.”
Bolt’s response was simple, promising his rival will “feel his full wrath” in Rio.
USAIN BOLT
Jamaica
Age: 29
Height: 195cm
Weight: 94kg
Personal Best:
100m — 9.58 sec (Berlin, 2009)
200m — 19.19 sec (Berlin, 2009)
Season’s Best:
100m — 9.88 sec
200m — 19.89 sec
World titles: 11 gold, 2 silver
Olympic Games: 6 gold
JUSTIN GATLIN
America
Age: 34
Height: 185cm
Weight: 79kg
Personal Best:
100m — 9.74 sec (Doha, 2015)
200m — 19.57 sec (Eugene, 2015)
Season’s Best:
100m — 9.80 sec
200m — 19.75 sec
World titles: 2 gold, 4 silver
Olympic Games: 1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze.
Originally published as Usain Bolt v Justin Gatlin: Rio ready for another instalment in athletics’ greatest rivalry
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