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American sprinter Justin Gatlin has explained the mental anguish he suffered after missing a glorious chance to beat 'off-form' Usain Bolt at the 2015 World Championships.
Former American Olympic sprinter Justin Gatlin has revealed how he dealt with failing to beat an out-of-shape Usain Bolt in the 100m during the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, China.
A hamstring injury to Bolt in March 2014 caused him to miss nine weeks of training, and he only took part in one individual 100m competition when he broke the World Indoor Record in Poland.
This put him in pretty woeful shape, and building up to the World Championships, he was in abysmal form.
He prepared for the event with just a handful of races, running only two 100m and three 200m.
His opening times were 10.12s for the 100m and 20.20s for the 200m. Although he won the 200m races in New York and Ostrava, his season's best time of 20.13s ranked him 20th globally.
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20:00 - 17.03.2024
ATHLETICS Australian wonderkid dubbed 'Oceanian Usain Bolt' sets another milestone after dominating Queensland Championships
The 16-year old, who recently ran the 200m in a time of 20.69s -just 0.11 seconds behind what Olympic legend Bolt achieved at the same age -, has achieved yet another millestone.
Bolt's form improved with two 100m runs of 9.87s in July in London, but Gatlin was the dominant sprinter with superior times of 9.74s and 19.57s and was seen as favourite to end the Jamaican legend’s dominance as a result.
Gatlin had been rebuilding his career for five years after being forced to serve a four year-ban for doping, which had put the 2004 Olympic champion’s reputation in the mud.
Gatlin even stated boldly that he would win, but at the event, he had to contend with a silver medal as Bolt claimed victory against the odds.
Years later, Andrew Martin of Total Running Productions would create a video explaining why Bolt certified his status as the greatest sprinter of all time by winning that race - one he was not supposed to win given his form relative to Gatlin’s - describing it as the greatest clutch moment by a sprinter.
That video has since hit 12 million views on YouTube.
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09:22 - 23.02.2024
ATHLETICS Justin Gatlin warns Letsile Tebogo's track rivals to brace for a tough season
Retired American track star Justin Gatlin has warned Letsile Tebogo's opponents, including Noah Lyles, to prepare for a tough show since the youngster is out to win everything.
Gatlin got to invite Martin on his YouTube channel Tidal League, and admitted that that defeat, and then watching the video, made him emotional and full of regrets that he did not seize the moment of finally beating Bolt after trying in vain prior to his injury.
“I think at the end of the day, if I had the capability to talk about that storyline myself, it would have done big numbers as well,” Gatlin said.
"Watching that video and me being part of that video, I totally understand. It is part of my legacy. I have had wins, I have had losses and for me to look back at that race, it is a fact of, when you have been in that situation where as an athlete, you have that rare moment that you choke.
"The moment becomes bigger than you and you do realise that you could have seized the moment but you didn’t when you cross the finish line and sometimes, people regret it and they never bounce back from that.
“It was a cautionary tale where, seize your moment, for a lot of the athletes out there now and make sure you bounce back. Know who you are.
“It was the only race that brought emotions out of me and it made me go into sweet ‘16 and maybe go into ‘17 thinking of track and field differently.
“Thinking of track and field from a psychological level which I didn’t before. I was like ‘how can I let this happen to me? I have always risen to the big moments and I feel like I always lean on that’ and when I didn’t I was like; 'I don’t want this to ever happen again.’
“You talking about it actually helped me look at it from a different perspective and helped me heal in a certain way.”
Gatlin was not able to beat Bolt in the 2016 Olympics, but did finally get his moment at the 2017 World Championships in London, where Bolt had to make do with bronze, while the American won silver as Christian Coleman claimed gold.
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