EYES ON BOLT! - World looks to Jamaican superstar to breathe life into ailing Champs

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

MOSCOW, Russia:

Usain Bolt heads into today's second day of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics as the possible saving grace of a sport in turmoil.

With the men's 100m semi-finals and final set to highlight activities inside the Luzhniki Stadium today, track and field, at least for a little over nine seconds, will forget its problems, amid the latest doping scandals that have rocked a sport which was just beginning to reclaim lost trust.

Bolt booked his spot in today's semi-final, which gets going at 10:05 a.m. (Jamaica time), with an easy 10.07 seconds win in his heat yesterday.

The double Olympic champion and world record holder is expected to progress from there to the 12:50 p.m. final, where he is strongly favoured to win his eighth individual gold medal at this level.

"I am looking forward to it," Bolt told The Sunday Gleaner after yesterday's win. "It was all about getting through to the next round so I just took it easy and made it through.

"For me, I just want to come in here and do something special, and if that gets more persons interested in the sport, then that's a good thing," he had said when asked a couple days earlier about the possibility of a world-record assault.

Truth is, in this - one of its
darkest hours - the entire track and field world is also looking for
something special from the big Jamaican.

In 2008,
Bolt, track and field's poster boy, was getting ready to unleash his
immense talent on the world at the Beijing Olympics and, in essence,
breathe fresh life into a sport that needed resuscitation, after years
of drug scandals sent a flatline on its reputation.

What the big Jamaican did back then - by
smashing three world records on his way to a trio of gold medals with a
welcomed and highly marketable brand of swagger - in essence did as
much for himself as it did for the sport.

He created a much-needed distraction
from the suspicions that clouded the sport, and as his reign continued
and his empire rose all the way through to last year's Olympic Games,
the Jamaican superstar has been leading, perhaps unknown to him, a
campaign to return the sport's reputation.

Five years
later, and with the IAAF's showpiece event now in full swing, it seems
in all honesty that not much has changed.

Massive
doping scandals among Russian and Turkish athletes, and the recent news
that the fastest American ever, Tyson Gay, along with Jamaican star and
one-time world record holder Asafa Powell, and four of his compatriots,
including Olympic 100m silver medallist Sherone Simpson, had returned
positive drug tests knocked the wind of a sport desperately trying to
catch up on drug cheats.

This was compounded yesterday
when top Trinidad and Tobago sprinter Kelly-Ann Baptiste withdrew from
the Championships with reports that she has failed a drugs
test.

The IAAF World Championships is already
struggling to excite locals in the host city - Moscow - without top
stars such as defending 100m champion Yohan Blake, 800m champion David
Rudisha, and 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, who is also facing
doping charges.

However, every hero needs a nemesis,
and perhaps this is where American Justin Gatlin comes
in.

A tainted athlete himself after serving a
four-year drug ban, Gatlin is the last man to beat Bolt, doing so weeks
ago at the Diamond League meet in Rome on June
6.

Gatlin also eased through in qualifying, posting
9.99 in winning his heat, as did other Jamaicans Kemar Bailey-Cole,
10.02, Nesta Carter, 10.11, Nickel Ashmeade, 10.12, with USA's Mike
Rodgers, 9.98, and Jimmy Vicaut (France), 10.06, also expected to be in
the mix.

Track and field needs help. A big win from
its biggest star would go a long way in providing the lifeline it
needs.

• TODAY'S SCHEDULE

JA TIME SEX EVENT ROUND

12:05 AM M 110 Metres Hurdles Decathlon
12:40 AM M 110 Metres Hurdles Heats
1:00 AM M Discus Throw Decathlon Group A
1:30 AM W 1500 Metres Heats
1:45 AM W Shot Put Qualification
2:05 AM M 400 Metres Heats
2:20 AM M Discus Throw Decathlon Group B
2:55 AM W 100 Metres Heats
4:05 AM M Pole Vault Decathlon
8:00 AM M 20 Kilometres Race Walk Final
8:15 AM M Javelin Throw Decathlon Group A
9:30 AM M Javelin ThrowDecathlon Group B
10:00 AM W Long Jump Final
10:05 AM M 100 Metres Semi-Final
10:10 AM W Pole Vault Qualification
10:35 AM M 800 Metres Semi-Final
11:05 AM W 400 Metres Semi-Final
11:15 AM WDiscus Throw Final
11:35 AM M1500 Metres Decathlon
12:05 PM W 10,000 MetresFinal
12:50 PM M 100 Metres Final