Tarnished 100m in need of credibility

American Justin Gatlin won a classic 100 metres final at the 2004 Athens Olympics and announced how proud he was to have done it clean.

Two years later he was banned from the sport after testing positive for excessive testosterone as the biggest event of the athletics programme, and arguably the entire Olympics, continued its uncomfortable association with performance-enhancing drugs.

“I have looked at the blue riband (100 metres) over the years and seen that there have been a number of offenders who have been successful and I just hope and pray that this year we don’t have another incident of that nature,” John Fahey, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told reporters on Thursday.

Ben Johnson, who provided in 1988 the biggest Olympic drugs scandal when he tested positive for steroids after his astonishing 9.79 victory run, was the most notorious but by no means only offender.

Doping suspension

Five of the last six Olympic 100 metres champions have been tainted, or in some cases stained to the core, by doping, with 1996 winner Donovan Bailey of Canada the odd man out.

He and Gatlin, who had already served a doping suspension, were the only two to be banned while racing but Linford Christie narrowly escaped suspension at the 1988 Games and tested positive for nandrolone and was banned after he retired.

Maurice Greene, the 2000 champion, was this year linked with a Mexican steroids dealer, though the American maintained he bought only legal products to give to his team mates.

Even 1984 champion Carl Lewis, who spoke out strongly against the doping culture on Thursday, failed three tests in 1988 after taking a banned stimulant in a remedy.

However, along with many other U.S. athletes, he escaped punishment and was allowed to compete in Seoul where he was beaten into silver by Johnson.

This year’s final promises to be the most exciting since that duel 20 years ago, with world record-holder Usain Bolt, fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell and American world champion Tyson Gay, all sub-9.8 second performers, going head to head.

Doping past

Fahey said a drug-free race would be the first step in “getting the sport of track and field back to the level where somebody wins on merit”.

With Marion Jones jailed for lying over her doping past and the U.S. 4x400 relay team stripped of their 2000 Olympic title this year after Antonio Pettigrew’s doping admission, the subject refuses to go away.

It is not surprising, either, that athletes continue to take the risk as the difference between failure and Olympic gold, with all the rewards that come with it, is usually only a matter of 100ths of a second.

Lewis said the situation would not change unless the athletes took action.