Usain Bolt, the 100 metres and history

Just over a year ago on a balmy evening in east London, Usain St Leo Bolt from the parish of Trelawny confirmed his superstar status by defending his Beijing Olympic 100 metres title. Following the victory, 80,000 souls were united in their laud.

Usain Bolt racing in London in July 2013 Reuters/Andrew Winning

Bolt should really be arriving in Moscow girding his loins for the fight to retain his world crown but he botched the start of the 100 metres final in Daegu in 2011 and was disqualified. Compatriot Yohan Blake went on to win the race, so at least Jamaica had its champion.

Blake is absent from this year’s world championships through injury. Would he have been a contender? Of course. Bolt attributed his success at the Olympic Park last year to the insistent breath on his shoulder of the man known as ‘the Beast’ due to his voracious appetite for training.

Blake beat Bolt in the Jamaican trials for the 2012 Olympics and Bolt said that defeat made him aware that he had to knuckle down if he wanted to win another gold at the Olympic Games.

Now that he’s ensconced in athletics legend, what will a second world championship title over 100 metres do for his reputation? Probably not that much. But his victory would help to quieten the ululations from former sprinters and commentators ever since it was revealed in July that potential champions Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell had tested positive for banned substances.

The 100 metres is the most lustrous spectacle at the big championships. It’s the ticket to brandish. The build-up mesmerises the crowd for far longer than the actual race. It’s whip crack quick. But the sheer electricity of that 10 second burst defines a meeting.

If Bolt wins this race, it’s odds on there’ll be a positive view of the Moscow world championships. If he fails to take the gold? Sayonara feel good factor. Ciao slough of despond.

Bolt’s legacy is secure whatever he does at the Moscow world championships but his triumph is vital if people are to maintain their belief in the art of dope free sprinting.

If he can succeed carrying this invisible weight, then this will be the most extraordinary of his victories.

Bolt clocked 9.85 seconds at the Anniversary Games in London on July 26 in his final outing before Moscow. He won comfortably against a strong field that included Michael Rodgers of the United States and Nesta Carter from Jamaica.

But he didn’t destroy them. There was adulation aplenty afterwards from the 60,000 strong crowd at the venue where he raced into history last August.

It was his best time of the season but miles slower than his world record of 9.58 seconds set at the Berlin world championships in 2009 and the 9.63 he delivered last summer to win gold in London. Bolt, by his own admission, hasn’t been so brilliant of late that a world record is on the cards.

“I’m just here to do my best and prove to the world that it is possible to run clean and run hard,” he said after the Anniversary Games win.

If he does take the 2013 world championship gold medal, the annals will show simply that he finished first in 9.7 or 9.8 seconds.

But for this race, time is irrelevant – the context is all.