(Sports news) Justin Gatlin will be turning 40 in two months as he will enter the 2022 season as one of the oldest active sprinters. Gatlin failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics thus missing a third consecutive appearance at the event. He had missed the 2008 Beijing Olympics due to a doping ban which got over in 2010.
The 39 year old has been in the sprinting world since 2003 and has served two doping bans as the first one had come before his professional years. Gatlin was the gold medalist in the 100m at the 2004 Athens Olympics with a timing of 9.85 secs, he also won the bronze in the 200m with a timing of 20.03 secs. Gatlin was on his way to break the world records in the 100m when the second doping ban made him stay away from the competition for a period of four years.
On his comeback in 2010, there were fresh faces in the competition as Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay were dominating the field along with Asafa Powell. Gatlin was four years senior to Bolt who established himself as a strong competitor in 100m and 200m. Gatlin is more of a 100m sprinter although he has top timings in the 200m, consistency has not been the same in the events. In the 100m, he has run under 10 secs on 64 occasions while in the 200m the sub 20 has been achieved 9 times which is comparatively less.
Gatlin has defeated Bolt twice in their 10 meetings in the 100m. Now Gatlin faces a challenge for the second time in his career similar to the one he had faced 10 years back. The only difference is now the age gap is even more with the present athletes. Su Bingtian and Isiah Young are the only ones who are in their early 30’s as the rest of the field are in their 20’s which is usually the peak for sprinters. Gatlin also remains quiet during the beginning of races and unlike Bolt does not interact with anyone or the crowd, with a grin on his face and tight closed fists the veteran blows away the track.
Gatlin has been subjected to criticism ever since the doping bans but he has been able to divert all those to emerge as one of the most successful sprinters in the last 15 years. It has been 18 years since the five time Olympic medalist ran a sub 10 race in the 100m for the first time, this year he has run under 10 secs twice with the third one exactly timed at 10.00 secs.
Gatlin will have to follow Kim Collins who used to run sub 10 seconds even when he was 40. The 10 time World Championship medallist has a rigid form while running and takes short strides, a technique which helped him run faster. It is tough to predict what will happen next year as Gatlin four years ago had defeated Christian Coleman who was 14 years his junior at the 100m in the 2017 London World Championships. Age doesn’t seem to slow down the serious faced sprinter, maybe missing the Olympics only fuelled him to do even better in the 2022 season or the younger ones will keep him behind the pack. We will know the results in a matter of a few months.
Also read: Asia’s fastest athlete Su Bingtian flying high after Tokyo final
