When Justin Gatlin was introduced to the crowd in Beijing before he set a blistering time of 9.83 seconds to storm into the World Championship 100 metres semi-finals he was greeted by boos.
In contrast Usain Bolt was treated like the hero he is with whoops and cheers as he also eased into the semi finals.
Today, both men will, barring a shock, cruise into the 100m final where they will go head to head for gold in what is being billed as good versus evil at a time when the credibility of athletics has taken a battering with a series of allegations about widespread doping.
In this context Gatlin, of course, represents evil – a proven drug cheat who was caught not once, but twice, but has incredibly been allowed to continue his career.
How a man, once lauded as the fresh, clean face of athletics but has tested positive on two occasions and banned both times was allowed to carry on in athletics is beyond me.
In 2001 he was suspended for two years for taking banned amp-hetamines. He claimed this was down to medication he was taking for an attention deficit disorder and the ban was reduced to a year.
He tested positive again in 2006 after winning the 100m and 200m double in the World Championships in Helsinki – this time for testosterone. Normally, any athlete convicted of doping twice is banned for life. Not Gatlin.
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He blamed his massage therapist for applying cream that resulted in the positive test but still got eight-years in return for cooperating with the doping authorities. He appealed his suspension and his sentence was halved to four years.
But what really rubs salt in the wound is that he has not accepted he did anything wrong and has never shown any remorse. In fact, his behaviour could be interpreted as a man who actually enjoys the publicity which now surrounds him.
This apparent arrogance has made him even more unpopular but he continues to shrug it off.
Some argue that drug cheats should be given a chance to carry on competing once they have served their time and that they can teach others about the dangers of performance enhancing products.
Rubbish. If dopers are shown mercy you will never rid the sport of cheats. Allowing Gatlin to continue was a shocking failure by those who run athletics.
It sends out entirely the wrong message and is just one example of a sport gone soft.
Watching #bejing2015 track worlds and I’m thinking @justingatlin might get @usainbolt this time around
— Michael Johnson (@FollowTheMenace) August 22, 2015
Even the new IAAF President Lord Coe admits he is uncomfortable with convicted dopers being allowed to compete. He now has a chance to do something about it.
In the meantime, Gatlin is still around and is running faster than ever and even yesterday was making light of his reputation saying: “I don’t see Usain Bolt saving anybody from housefires. I don’t see myself plotting anything in a big cave with evil minions.”
He claims all this negative publicity is down to jealousy over the fact that he is putting in some spectacularly fast times. Wrong, it’s purely down to the fact that people don’t like cheats and whether he has served his time or not, he will never be forgiven by the majority of those who care about sport.
If he beats Bolt in today’s final and wins, it will be a victory for dopers and a massive failure for what remains of the credibility of athletics. In this case gold would be tarnished and worthless.
