USA’s Justin Gatlin: ‘I can raise the level of my displays’

Usain Bolt has worked closely with PUMA for more than a decade, with the Global Sports brand equipping him with innovative running and training wear.

And everyone else should be very anxious.

It means that the billions of people who can name Usain Bolt but no other athlete in history need wait only until the first afternoon of action inside the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing for a first glimpse of their hero at the 2015 World Championships. Asafa Powell, perhaps? Or maybe Tyson Gay? She is tipped to better her 81.08m throw set at the Festival of Throwers meeting in Cetniewo, Poland, a monumental distance and the first time the 80m barrier has been broken by a woman.

Bolt reiterated he had no problem racing Gatlin and said his only focus was on adding to his medal haul. He’s been hobbled by joint problems that caused him to “pretty much run slow”.

But in warm, sticky conditions – 25 C and 60% humidity despite the race finishing after 10pm local time – Farah sat in behind his rivals as they produced a series of laps around 64 seconds and then kept closer order still as the pace dropped away in the heat. The American hasn’t lost in two seasons, but none of his wins have had Bolt in the field.

“I’m ready to go”, said Bolt, who turned 29 yesterday.

Bolt sort of enjoys the what-is-wrong-with-Bolt storyline. It was something like that at the London Olympics, when he was less than 100 per cent and entered the games following losses to teammate Yohan Blake at the Jamaican Olympic trials.

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”.

“I haven’t gotten a lot of races in [this year], but I think running through the rounds [heat, semifinal, final in Beijing], I’ll get going”, Bolt told media in Beijing on Thursday. I’m good to go.

“I didn’t expect to be leading at this stage”, said the Briton. The expected main showdown between Bolt and Gatlin has been portrayed as good vs. evil.

Gatlin insisted he wasn’t sending any message to Bolt. “But I am happy with the way everything has been going, so I am happy with that”. “I just do it because those are the rules and what’s required”.

“In training hard, I’ve definitely had to sacrifice a lot more”. A more important number to watch will be the air quality index. “We want to show our best”. At the World Championships this year, he is eyeing for nothing, but gold.

The race walk is usually an event that’s overshadowed, but it has drawn all sorts of scrutiny lately after a scandal in Russian Federation.

The 41-year-old former runner, who is proud of being a clean athlete, says the information is too complicated and could be misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill of Britain holds a slim lead after the opening four events of the heptathlon. “That’s my job. What the critics say about me doesn’t really bother me”, said Gatlin.

In the big Kiwi’s absence, the world leader from Germany, Christina Schwanitz, is favourite, while home hopes lie with Olympic and two-time world bronze medallist Gong Lijiao.

Hughes is confident of winning a World Championship medal.

Victory left Farah halfway to his third long-distance double since winning two golds at the 2012 London Olympics.