33 year old American 100m sprinter, Justin Gatlin, ran 9.74 seconds in Doha on Friday and, in doing so, ran a personal best. He isn't the first guy over thirty to run a personal best: Linford Christie ran his at 33, for example. Michael Johnson broke the one lap record at 31.
For those who don't know the backstory, Gatlin was one of the elite sprinters around, mixing it with the biggest of big boys in the mid-to-late 2000s. He won gold in the Athens Olympics and in the world championships the following year in Finland. He equalled the world record of 9.77 in 2006 in Doha (where he ran the other day).
He earned those medals after returning early from a ban, given to him for a positive test for amphetamines in 2001.
In 2006, a couple of months after that world record run, he was informed that he had failed another doping test, this time for a substance believed to be testosterone. The 9.77 time was annulled and the eight years ban he negotiated in exchange for assistance with an anti-doping body was downgraded at the end of 2007 to a four year ban.
He tried to get a career in the NFL but quick guys are ten a penny (see Dwayne Chambers) and he didn't make the grade.
So, back to the track he came in 2010 at 28 years old and, since then, he has been competing at the top level again.
He denies ever doing anything wrong (unlike his returning contemporaries) and denies getting an advantage from cheating.
Is it plausible - is it possible - that a man who served a significant sentence for having used a performance enhancing substance in his twenties is now running faster without drugs?
It's an oft-trotted debate and we have had stuff like this before on blonde, but Gatlin is a hugely divisive figure in athletics and the integrity of the showpiece event of the men's 100m craves perfection, but not at any price.
Over to you...
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