- Title: ATHLETICS-WORLD/BOLT NEWSER I can't save athletics from doping on my own - Bolt
- Date: 20th August 2015
- Summary: ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** BOLT STANDING UP, SHAKING HAND OF HOST AND WALKING AWAY
- Embargoed: 4th September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVABMRI0AUNY7KOMCDANIX8CC5SM
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Olympic and world sprint champion Usain Bolt said on Thursday (August 20) he has been saddened by the focus on doping in the run-up to the World Atlhetics Championships but said it was up to all clean athletes, not just him, to save the sports.
The governing International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has spent the three weeks leading up to its show-piece event defending its record on doping after a string of embarrassing leak.
The Jamaican told a news conference that it is sad that he has been hearing too much about doping rather than competition.
"People are saying I need to win for the sport but there's a lot of other athletes out there running clean, and who have run clean throughout their whole careers," the Jamaican told a packed news conference in Beijing.
"So it's not only just on me because I cannot do it by myself. So I think I can't do it by myself, it's a responsibility of all the athletes to take it upon themselves to save the sport and show that sports can go forwards without drug cheats," Bolt told media at a news conference in Beijing.
In the midst of the doping crisis, the sprint showdown between Bolt, who has never failed a drugs test, and in-form American Justin Gatlin, who has served two suspensions for using banned substances, has been billed as a battle for the soul of the sport.
Gatlin's second positive test, in 2006, would normally have earned him a lifetime ban but after he agreed to co-operate with the anti-doping authorities that was cut to eight, and then four years.
Bolt, who turns 29 on Friday, said he had no problem running against Gatlin if the rules say the former Olympic and world champion is eligible, and rejected the idea that, as the sport's biggest star, it was his responsibility to save it.
The man who set the 100 metres world record in (9.58 seconds and also the 200m (19.19secs) at the 2009 world championships in Berlin, said he was ready to extend his reign as the world's fastest man.
"For me competition is competition. It's always with the best form while execute well. For me but I'm ready to go, all I need to do right now is to execute, Bolt said.
"I think that's the key thing because I haven't got a lot of races in. But I think running will get going . I have to run probably first fifty quick to easy to get my body running of this speed so I will be all right. I'm not worried. I never look at statistics because track and field, you will never know what's gonna happen really," he added.
It was at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing that Bolt first established himself as the sport's biggest star, winning both sprint titles and a relay gold, all in world record times, at the 2008 Olympics. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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