MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Mo Farah and Usain Bolt ignited the first day of the athletics world championships yesterday but the event was blighted by dire crowds and yet another high-profile doping scandal for a leading sprinter.
Despite hot and humid conditions Bolt barely broke sweat in his 100 metres heat as he sauntered into today’s semi-finals in 10.07 seconds.
Organisers, whose claims to have sold 80 percent of seats for the Aug. 10-18 championship look hopelessly optimistic, will hope a few more fans turn up for Sunday’s showpiece final.
Only a few thousand were scattered around the vast 81,000-capacity Luzhniki Stadium even for yesterday’s opening ceremony where Russian President Vladimir Putin offically opened the showpiece.
Those who were there were treated to a consummate performance by Briton’s Olympic distance-double champion Farah in the 10,000 metres, while Kenya’s Edna Kiplagat also produced a tactically astute run to retain the women’s marathon.
Bolt starts as an unbackable favourite to add the 100m title to his Olympic double, partly due to the absence of fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay, who have both failed drugs tests.
Leading Jamaican women sprinters Sherone Simpson and Veronica Campbell-Brown also tested positive in the lead-up to Moscow and yesterday Kelly Anne Baptiste of Trinidad and Tobago, bronze medallist two years ago behind silver winner and former champion Campbell-Brown, joined them.
Trinidad officials confirmed that Baptiste and team mate Semoy Hackett had withdrawn from the championships, though news of her positive test came only from the Trinidad Express newspaper.
With every doping case that rocks the sport, Bolt’s value increases, though there was little showboating yesterday as the Jamaican went about his business with a serious look.
A false start in the lane next to him, sparking memories of his final disqualification two years ago, did not shake his concentration.
“I just wanted to get my reaction and start right,” he said. “The false start didn’t affect me – I made that mistake in Daegu and now I’m staying focussed.”
American duo Mike Rodgers and Justin Gatlin both dipped under 10 seconds to lead the qualifiers, with Peimeng Zhang also catching the eye with a Chinese record 10.04.
Two years ago Farah was agonisingly pipped on the line by Ethiopia’s Ibrahim Jeilan in the world 10,000 final but he is a very different athlete now and though Jeilan pushed him all the way again yesterday, the Somalia-born Briton always looked the winner.
Fully confident he could win any kind of race, he worked his way slowly through the field, survived one or two hairy stumbles as the elbows flew, before taking up the running 800 metres out.
FLYING FARAH
Having recently broken the European record over 1500, his finishing speed was never in doubt and though Jeilan hung on gamely, Farah’s fearsome last lap brought him home in 27:21.71 ahead of Jeilan and Kenya’s Paul Tanui.
“I thought ‘not again,’” said Farah, whose bulging eyed stare of horror as Jeilan swept past him in 2011 has become an enduring image of the sport.
“I was just digging in, digging in. It was important to have something left as I did not want to lose again.
