Usain Bolt: I can’t save athletics from doping on my own

Looks like lots of folks.

American Gatlin underlined his dominance of the sprints this season by storming to victory in the sixth heat in 9.83 seconds, the best time of the day at the Bird’s Nest stadium.

Gatlin insisted he wasn’t sending any message to Bolt. “Competition is competition, it is just about who executes well on the day”.

The Bolt v Gatlin showdown, which should conclude in Sunday’s final, injury and false starts permitting, is being billed as a duel for the “soul of the sport”.

Bolt is in no doubt what he has in mind, with reports he has been stopping the clock at 9.7sec on the training track, an assertion he declined to dismiss.

Sebastian Coe will succeed Diack following a vote by the IAAF’s 214 member federations on Wednesday, and the victor will know they need a lot more than one stand-out, clean athlete to fight the doping problem the sport faces. I wanted to save as much energy as possible.

The battle between Gatlin and Bolt is one of the most eagerly anticipated head-to-heads in the 100m in recent times, partly due to their contrasting reputations.

Although the Jamaican’s 200m world record of 19.19 is some way off, the callow Japanese sprinter can only benefit from rubbing shoulders with track’s speed kings.

Bolt, who has never failed a drugs test, said: “The rules are there and the rules are there for a reason. I’m ready to go”.

Just as in London before an Anniversary Games at which he underlined the fact he should not be written off despite Gatlin’s sizzling form, the Jamaican emphasised his belief that he remains the man for the big occasion.

American 19-year-old Trayvon Bromell, the quickest teenager ever, ran 9.91s to win his heat. But in 2006 he was barred from the sport for eight years for a positive testosterone test. Gatlin blamed a masseuse who he said had rubbed him with testosterone cream. “I’m in wonderful shape”.

“Starting is always my issue coming into the championships, but I’m where I am supposed to be”. Hopefully, my actions on the track will show that, to the people that really care. Thats all that really matters.”.

Lurking in the shadows behind those two could be a surprise victor.

Johnson, who won 110-meter hurdles gold in the 1996 Atlanta Games, rejected that notion on the eve of the championships, saying: “The people who break the rules, they serve their bans and when their bans are over their bans are over”. He likes his chances. I’m good to go.

HER SPOTLIGHT: Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill returns to the heptathlon after the birth of her son a year ago.

“The cricketer Chris Gayle is perhaps the only one that comes close to the trio of Bolt, Asafa Powell and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce”. Fraser-Pryce has three of the top-five fastest times in the world this season. Representing the US – the new generation including Tori Bowie and the curiously named English Gardner.

UNDER SCRUTINY: All eyes in the 10,000-meter race will be on Mo Farah and Galen Rupp.

Kenyan Olympic champion and world-record holder David Rudisha reached Sunday’s 800m semifinals, along with fellow medal favorites Nijel Amos of Botswana and Mohammed Aman of Ethiopia. The Russians have won the men’s 20-kilometer event at the last three worlds.

The gold medal in the shot put figures to be between David Storl of Germany and Joe Kovacs of the United States. But Christina Schwanitz of Germany reduced Gong Lijiao to second place with a throw of 20.37 meters, seven centimeters more than Gong. Kovacs has gone over that mark four times in 2015.