Athletics nervously enters post-Bolt world

RIO DE JANEIRO: As doping-tainted athletics emerges from its darkest hour fighting to restore its credibility, the reality for track and field is that it will have to cross that rocky road without Usain Bolt.

The Jamaican, who sealed an amazing third haul of three Olympic sprint gold medals here, has consistently been a beacon for clean athletes amid doping and corruption scandals that mired Sebastian Coe’s first year in office as IAAF president.

Bolt will compete at next year’s world championships in London as his swansong, meaning the next Olympics in Tokyo will not feature one of sport’s most recognisable figures.

Coe insists, however, that athletics will endure, telling AFP that Bolt had transcended his sport in a way that was comparable to boxing icon Muhammad Ali.

“The man is a genius,” Coe said. “There’s been nobody since Muhammad Ali who’s got remotely near to what this guy has done in terms of grabbing the public imagination.”

However, Coe argued that just as a new generation of boxers emerged after Ali’s retirement, so track and field would unearth new personalities after Bolt. “It’s a massive gap, but it’s not a gap that is insuperable,” Coe said.

“You’re not going to fill that gap overnight, but there are great, talented athletes out there.”

American Ashton Eaton, who defended his decathlon title here, was described by Bolt after his victory in London four years ago as the world’s best athlete.

And Eaton was adamant that Bolt’s absence would not leave a vacuum. “I will say that it is an absolute pleasure to be able to compete in the same era as Usain Bolt,” Eaton said.

“I really disagree he’ll leave a vacuum. If anything, he’s provided a platform for all the other young, aspiring athletes to launch from.

“Just now we’re not seeing the fruits of his accomplishments and labour, but I think in the years to come you’ll see a lot of young athletes who’ll say ‘I got inspired by Usain Bolt’.

“When I got inspired by Michael Johnson, I was eight years old and I didn’t start coming into fruition in track until I was 18, so give it a decade.”

Bolt said he thought the future of track “looked good”. “I want to stay around the sport. I want to stay in the sport,” the 30-year-old said. “The sport’s being doing better, they’re going to clean it up and it’s going to do great.”