A sport in need of salvation

Maurice Greene said it all for his beleaguered sport as the dawning of the seventh world track and field championships here this morning induces hope of balming ointment to soothe the self-inflicted wounds of recent weeks.

Greene can only have watched and fretted as the media attention which might have fuelled his own publicity machine was instead deployed to fan the fires of indignation over recurring drugs scandals.

Now, discharging the responsibilities which go with the title of world 100 metres record holder, the American is embarked on a damage limitation mission at the behest of those in authority.

"I guess it's a matter of stressing the positives and hoping that the performances here in Seville will be good enough to push everything else into the background," he said.

"People have said how unfortunate it was for athletics that news of the scandals broke when it did. But I prefer to look at the other side. Now, we have the chance to go out and prove by our performances that ours is still a great sport. This is our time in the sun and we should be ready to make the best of it."

Greene, an unlikely heir to a throne which has been occupied by some of sport's patriarchal names, booked his place in history with that breathtaking 9.79 seconds run earlier this summer.

Now, high on the improbability of it all, he seeks to consolidate his rating as the world's finest sprinter by attempting the 100 and 200 metres double, once the norm in big-time athletics, but now, with the intense pressures of the professional sport, relatively rare.

Only Carl Lewis of the modern breed of sprinters has undertaken that challenge successfully. And that was during the Olympic Games at Los Angeles 15 years ago.

The absence of athletes of the calibre of Trinidad's Ato Boldon, the winner in Athens two years ago, and fellow American Dennis Mitchell eases his task in the dash. But with the resourceful Frankie Fredericks as ambitious as ever he could struggle to illustrate his mastery of bend-running.

After the relative blandness of the Grand Prix circuit, the revised priorities of championship competition are welcome. And if the essence of the sport is the excitement of head-to-head rivalry then we may yet have cause to recall the last sporting spectacular of the millennium with enthusiasm.

Now that he's distanced himself from the illness which ate into his career over the last couple of years few would bet against the naturalised Dane Wilson Kipketer in the 800 metres. Yet, there is just a suspicion that if Japheth Kimutai, one of those who succeeded him in Kenya's team, gets it right, he could be on Kipketer's shoulder down the finishing straight.

No less than Kipketer and Michael Johnson, an assured winner of the 400 metres, if he proves his recovery from hamstring problems Hicham El Guerrouj has frequently looked in a different class to those who aspire to surprise him in the 1,500 metres.

The reality is, however, that the Kenyan newcomer Neah Ngeny is only a quarter of a second slower this season with a best time of three minutes 28.84 seconds. And no less than the Algerian Noureddine Morceli, he will be hoping to outsmart the favourite if the final condenses into tactics.

That is the abiding attraction of championship running. But even after taking all the variables into consideration it is difficult to see anybody finishing within 80 metres of the remarkable Haile Gebrselassie in the 10,000 metres final.

Colin Jackson, who shares with Jonathan Edwards and, to a lesser extent, Paula Radcliffe, the burden of spearheading Britain's challenge, is again within touching distance of the 110 metres hurdles title. But he must still find substantial improvement on his season's best to propel himself clear of the American Mark Clear.

And in the field the competitive element is no less finely-honed with Russia's Maksim Tarasov faced with yet another abrasive challenge from the American Jeff Hartwig in the pole vault. As ever, the struggle for supremacy in the women's championships will be no less intense with France's European champion Christine Arron embarked on the monumental challenge of exploding the myth of Marian Jones's invincibility in the sprints.

That may turn out to be mission impossible, but further down the order there is every prospect of a race to savour in the 800 metres in which the Olympic champion, Svetlana Masterkova of Russia, will be seeking to avenge her defeat in Zurich by Maria Mutola of Mozambique.

For all the merit contained in the performances of Peter Coghlan, James Nolan, Mark Carroll, Susan Smith-Walsh and Karen Shinkins, the sad reality is that Irish runners will merely be making up the numbers on this occasion. And given the excitement engendered by Sonia O'Sullivan in the 1990s, that will be difficult to accept.

Yet it ought not obscure the merit of what promises to be an absorbing week in a setting made for heroics. In recent weeks athletics may once again have found itself on the back foot. But come the crunch, the old charisma will, I suspect, be as potent as ever as the sport battles to retrieve its good name.