Is Bolt the only sub 9.79 runner who is clean?

According to Daily Telegraph Sports News Correspondent Ben Rumsby: “If Nesta Carter is confirmed, every man apart from Bolt who has ever run under 9.79sec is a doper.” This is depressing news for track and field.

This means that world record holder Usain Bolt is in danger of losing his 4x100m relay gold medal that he picked up at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The A sample of Bolt’s relay temmate Nesta Carter was confirmed to have contained Methylhexanamine, a banned stimulant which interestingly enough was not prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) until 2009.

If this is the case then the Olympic gold medal winning performance by Carter could be legal. This is indeed confusing because a BBC article stated that “Methylhexanamine has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) Code prohibited list since 2004” while another BBC article from 2009 reports that Jamaica’s Anti-Doping Commission (Jadco) had said that the drug Methylhexanamine “was not on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned list” despite containing similar properties to tuaminoheptane, a drug which is banned.

It was Methylhexanamine that led to the paltry 3 month ban of Yohan Blake in 2009, who later became the second fastest man ever over 100m and 200m in 9.69 s in 2012 and 19.26 s in 2011 respectively. This does leave me wondering about the legitamacy of his exceptionally fast runs, but these days if anyone is incredible, their credibility is called into question.

Blake’s Jamaican compatriot Asafa Powell also failed a drugs test along with American sprinter Tyson Gay in 2013.  Asafa Powell had his ban reduced from 18 months to 6, while Usain Bolt argued that Tyson Gay’s one year suspension should have been made a lifetime ban.

While he admitted use of an anabolic steroid, Gay was supposedly blissfully aware that the cream he had been using contained the juice. BBC Sport reports him saying:

“I don’t have a sabotage story,” he said last month. “I basically put my trust in someone and was let down. I know exactly what went on, but I can’t discuss it right now.”

Similarly Powell is also quick to ascert his innocence. After testing positive for banned stimulant, oxilofrine, Powell claimed that he had been given nine supplements, including  Epiphany D1 though Powell had received a “contaminated version”  which presumably contained the drug that led to his positive drugs test.

Another prominent name is Justin Gatlin who is probably Usain Bolt’s closest rival at the moment, ten years after having been handed a four year ban for doping in 2006. According to the website letsrun.com “Gatlin has never admitted to knowingly taking steroids.”

All of the athletes who have taken steroids in the past seem to downplay the severity of their actions and Usain Bolt is in a minority of elite athletes who has never failed a drugs test.

Hence, there needs to be zero-tolerance and lifetime bans towards any athlete found taking banned substances. Equally, it must be ensured that athletes are made fully aware of the rules so that the blame can fall squarely on them. If lifetime bans are too harsh, then athletes ought to play clean from the offset. Then again there are far too many names to mention of current (such as Mike Rodgers and Femi Ogunode) and former sprinters who are guilty of foul play, and if they were all kicked out of the sport, the sport would be in jeopardy. It already is.

2016 sub-10 kings

The official sub-10 king is Asafa Powell, who has run 94 sub-10 100m clockings at the time of writing. Some would say the real king is Usain Bolt and that a sub-10 king title is a false consolation prize for Powell.

Yet this year has seen three very worthy men running sub-10 in the 100m:  Wayde van Niekerk, Omar McLeod, and Kim Collins.

South Africa’s first sub-10 runner came in the form of Akani Simbine on 8th March 2016, but just a few days later in Bloemfontein, South Africa, the current 400m World Champion Wayde van Niekerk made sprint history by becoming the first man ever to run a sub-44 400m, sub-20 200m and sub-10 100m.

Meanwhile, Omar McLeod of Jamaica took the honour of becoming the first man to run a sub-13 110m hurdles and a sub-10 100m after he recorded a new personal best time of 9.99 on 23rd April. He expressed his elation via Twitter:

“Hard to believe that I haven’t ran this event in five years and my personal best prior to this was 11.02 wind-legal. So with that said, this race kinda means a lot. Finally trusting my abilities!”

This year Omar leads the field in the 110m hurdles with a time of 12.98 s at the 2016 Shanghai Diamond League, though Van Niekerk’s 44.11 s 400m is second only to the reigning Olympic and former World Champion in 2011, Kirani James. No doubt both McLeod and van Niekerk will be among the favourites to take the gold medal in Rio in their respective events.

Perhaps not among the favourites to take glory in Rio is Kim Collins, but his story is probably the most impressive of all. The grandfather of track and field first ran sub-ten in 2002, but at the age of 38 he set a new personal best of 9.96 s and became the world record holder for the Veteran 35 category. Since ascending to the V40, Collins recently lowered his mark to 9.93 s at the tender age of forty, 0.05 seconds faster than what he ran in 2002.

The veteran athlete told USA TODAY Sports:

“The key to doing track and field for so long is that the body remembers,” Collins said. “So once I get fit I have no problem, because I’ve been doing it for so many years. Once you get fit first, it’s easy for anybody to last as long as I have in this sport.”

When a hurdler, a 400m runner and a 40 year old run sub-10 in the 100m, does this not somewhat undermine the achievements these days of the 100m sprinter who dips below that magic barrier?

A dual in Rio between Schippers and Bowie for 100m and 200m glory.

After recording the third fastest time in history over 200m, a time only eclipsed by American athletes, Florence Griffith Joyner and Marion Jones, Dafne Schippers became an almost overnight sensation since her transition from the heptathlon.

Schippers is perhaps the fastest woman over 200m ever if you discard the fact that Marion Jones was found to be using  performance enhancing drugs  and while Griffith Joyner was not a convicted drugs cheat, many suspicions arise over the women’s world record holder in the 100m and 200m, marks of 10.49 s and 21.34 s which have not even been challenged since 1988, but Griffith Joyner is a story for another day.

In athletics, some seem to have reached a conclusion that an amazing athlete is guilty until proven innocent. Cynics can be forgiven. At the 2015 World Championships, four of the seven heat winners in the men’s 100m were found guilty of drug doping offenses: Asafa Powell, Femi Ogunode, Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin.

Naturally, the track and field community was cynical of Dafne Schippers, who at last year’s World Championships, was narrowly defeated by Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce for the gold medal position with Tori Bowie being pushed into the bronze medal position.

Though a dip at the end ensured Schippers claimed first place against Fraser-Pryce’s Jamaican teammate, Elaine Thompson in the 200m who still came through the line in an impressive time of 21.66.

This year, Schippers was able to run down Thompson again with a dip at the end but Schippers’ kick in the closing stages was not enough to see off Torie Bowie who commanded the race right from the start recording a new world leading time of 21.99, a perfect response and psychological victory against Schippers’ previous world lead of 22.02, though Schippers commented on Twitter:“Happy with my 22.02 in typical Dutch weather” implying that in better weather conditions she would have gone even faster, especially as she was easing up into a slight headwind.

However in the 100m, Schippers’ 10.83 s clocking was narrowly defeated at the 2016 Doha Diamond League by Tori Bowie’s 10.80 s a personal best time which Bowie holds since her Monaco Diamond League victory in 2014, just a hundredth of a second faster than Schippers’ best.

This season Bowie now leads the way in both the 100m and 200m, while English Gardner leapfrogged Schippers in the 100m with a 10.81 s at the Eugene Diamond League.

At this stage, it is difficult to predict who will come out on top, because there are still more battles to be fought before the queen of sprints is crowned champion in Rio, but it promises to be a mouthwatering dual between protagonists Dafne Schippers and Tori Bowie.

 

Will Britain’s Chijindu Ujah be a serious threat in the 100m in Rio?

At just 22 years of age, Chijindu Ujah has established himself as Britain’s fastest man over 100m in 2014, 2015 and at the Loughborough International on 22nd May, rose to the top of the rankings with a 10.06 clocking for 2016, still a tenth of a second outside his personal best of 9.96 seconds.

Perhaps the reason for his rise this year could be due to the fact that he has run the 100m seven times already this season, more than most of his closest rivals. Ujah’s 10.06 clocking comes just 2 days after his wind assisted 10.15 time at the Great City Games in Manchester’s city centre where he was beaten by St. Kitts and Nevis veteran Kim Collins and rising star, Trayvon Bromell of the US.

2 days does not seem like enough to run at one’s fastest, so is it possible that Ujah was taking it easy in Manchester before he let loose at Loughborough? After Sean Safo-Antwi’s 3rd place finish in the 60m at the British Indoor Championships, he admitted that “it takes ten days to get a PB out your legs.”  This idea of a ten day taper to peak in competitions comes from Charlie Francis who coached former disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson.

Prior to his races in Manchester and Loughborough, Ujah set a new record of 10.17 seconds at the 2016 British University Championships representing Middlesex University. After the race he told Athletics Weekly “It’s alright but there’s a lot more in the tank.” In addition, Ujah took the Active Newham Open series and has been anything but “race rusty” a term used by Usain Bolt after his season opener of 10.05, a hundredth of a second quicker than Ujah’s season’s best, but it’s all relative.

That being said, if Ujah can get a PB out, then he’ll be in the company of Femi Ogunode, Justin Gatlin and Yohan Blake who are the only athletes in 2016 to have run faster than Ujah’s best time of 9.96, but have all tested positive for banned substances.

One of Ujah’s closest competitors in the 100m is likely to be Adam Gemili who ran 9.97 seconds last year before sustaining a hamstring injury and agonisingly had to sit out at the World Championships in Beijing. Gemili by contrast is yet to open his outdoor season though is expected to run at the Birmingham Diamond League on 5th June 2016. Another rival to Ujah comes in the form of James Dasaolu, who was edged out by Ujah in Loughborough, a psychological boost against Dasaolu who has struggled to build on his 9.91 time he recorded at the British Championships in 2013.

Surprise package Nethaneel Mitchel-Blake has also run 10.09 this year, but after bursting on to the scene with his shock 19.95 200m, the Louisiana State University student is likely to have a go at the 200m. In fact, both Gemili who competed in the 2013 World Championship 200m final in Moscow and Zharnel Hughes who competed in the 2015 World Championship final in Beijing will probably fancy their chances in the 200m too.

One can also not write off Richard Kilty who, at the Jablonec Indoor Gala this year, ran the fastest 60m in Europe in 6.50 seconds this year alongside fellow Brit Theo Etienne. Kilty was also beaten by Ujah at the Great City Games but we are still yet to see whether he will be a serious challenge. In spite of this, I’m putting my money on Ujah to shine in Rio, though a medal might just be out of grasp.

Usain Bolt: 100m Cayman, Ostrava, Rio

The current World and Olympic champion, Usain Bolt, said he was “race rusty” after his season opener of 10.05 in the Cayman Islands and added that he needed more races to sharpen up.  He hoped that he would silence the doubters in Ostrava, Czech Republic with a 9.8 clocking.

The 29-year-old Jamaican knows that if he is to win at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, then it is important that he runs a quick time early on to put off the pressure from his closest rival Justin Gatlin who recorded the five fastest 100m times in 2015 but lost the 100m world title in spectacular fashion with a premature dip at the line.

Going into the championships, it seemed like it was Gatlin’s race to lose, though Bolt fans will point out that Gatlin had peaked prematurely, with a 9.77 in the semi-finals of the 2015 World Championships, a mark which would have been enough to have beaten Bolt’s 9.79 gold medal finish in Beijing’s National Stadium.

Despite Bolt’s scrappy semi-final victory at the last World Championships, he remained unscathed by Gatlin’s scintillating performance and remarked that “he’s (Gatlin) always impressive through the rounds.” Hence, at this early stage of the season, there was little reason for the Bolt camp to be worried.

At tonight’s Golden Spikes Meet, Bolt did not get the 9.8 he had wanted, but nonetheless it was a routine victory in 9.98 into a slight -0.4 headwind and pulling away from Ramon Gittens of Barbados in second position who came in at 10.21 seconds. The lightning Bolt looked comfortable and composed, but it may take stiffer competition before Bolt can find that 9.8 pace.

Currently, Qatar’s Femi Ogunode leads the way at 9.91 seconds in the 100m and arch rival, American Justin Gatlin as well as Bolt’s Jamaican countryman Yohan Blake have run faster than Bolt this year, though there is a long way to go and it would be wrong to doubt him at this early stage.

The race for gold in Rio continues.

Meanwhile, the UK’s James Ellington took the men’s 200m in 20.35, just outside of his new lifetime best of 20.31 recorded in Clermont, Florida, USA but he was made to work in the closing stages, just staving off a challenge from Greece’s Tsákonas Likoúrgos-Stéfa. Fellow Brit, Lawrence Clarke occupied the bronze medal position in the 110m hurdles with a season’s best of 13.57, but it wasn’t enough to see off Jarret Eaton’s 13.25 and Jeff Porter’s 13.42, both of the USA. In the 400m, Martyn Rooney finished fourth, extending his lead at the top of the UK’s rankings to 45.78 but was still off the pace of Jamaica’s Javon Francis’ 44.87. Another Brit, Rhys Williams picked up a season’s best of 49.85 in the 400m hurdles in fifth position.